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THE CATHEDRALS OF 
NORTHERN FRANCE 



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OTRE DAME 

de NOrON . . 



THE CATHEDRALS OF 
NORTHERN FRANCE 

By FRANCIS MILTOUN ; f-^t^ 

WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS, 
PLANS, AND DIAGRAMS, 

By BLANCHE McMANUS 



c-^ 



^.,1 iL-xc-v-c"^— ;s 7 >uXl-cca.'a_ ^a-vu'C.o'^-^-^ 




BOSTON 

£♦ €♦ ^Baije anil Company 

MDCCCCIIII 



CO is 



CtlvED| 






OtASS A, XXc Mo. 



// 



Copyright, igoj 
By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 



All rights reserved 



Published October, 1903 



Colonial ^rtss 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
Boston. Mass., U. S. A. 



rHIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR AND ARTIST 
TO THE GENIUS OF RACE WHICH 
MADE POSSIBLE THE EXISTENCE OF THESE 
ARCHITECTURAL "GLORIES OF FRANCE" 



APOLOGIA 

*^ There are two ways of writing a book of 
travel: to recount the journey itself, or the 
results of it/^ This is also the case with regard 
to any work which attempts to purvey topo- 
graphical or historical information of a nature 
which is only to he gathered upon the spot; 
and, when an additional side-light is shown by 
reason of the inclusion, as in the present in- 
stance, of the artistic and religious element, it 
becomes more and more a question of judi- 
cious selection and arrangement of fact, rather 
than a mere hazarding of opinions, which, in 
many cases, can he naught but conjecture, and 
may, in spite of any good claim to authorita- 
tiveness, be misunderstood or perverted to an 
inutile end, or, what is worse, swallowed in 
that oblivion where lies so much excellent 
thought, which, lacking either balance or time- 
liness, has become stranded, wrecked, and 
practically lost to view because of its unappro- 
priate and unattractive presentation, 

V 



Apologia 

To-day, the purely technical writer may 
have little hope of immortality unless he is 
broad-minded enough to take a cultivated 
interest in many matters outside the ken of his 
own particular sphere. The best-equipped 
person living could not produce a new ''Dic- 
tionary of Architecture,'' and expect it to 
fill any niche that may be waiting for such a 
work, unless he brought to bear, in addition to 
his own special knowledge, something of the 
statistician, something of the professed com- 
piler, and, if possible, a little of the not unim- 
portant knowledge possessed by the maker and 
seller of books, meaning — the publisher. 
Given these qualifications, it is likely that he 
will then produce an ensemble as far in ad- 
vance of what otherwise might have been as is 
the modern printing machine, as a factor in the 
dissemination of literature, as compared with 
the ancient scribes working to the same end. 

The sentimentalist and rhapsodist in words 
and ideas is a dwindling factor at the present 
day, and a new presentation of fact is occa- 
sionally to be met with in the printed page. 
The best '' book of travel'' within the knowl- 
edge of the writer, and perhaps one of the 
slightest in bulk ever written in the English 
language, is Stevenson's ''Inland Voyage" — 

vi 



Apologia 

here were imagination, appreciation, and a 
new way of seeing things, and, above all, en- 
thusiasm; and this is the formula upon which 
doubtless many a future writer will build his 
reputation, though he may never reach the 
significant heights expressed by Stevenson in 
the picturesque wording of his wish to be 
made Bishop of Noyon. 

This apparent digression into a critical esti- 
mate of the making of books is but another 
expression of the justification of the writer in 
the attempt herein made to set forth in at- 
tractive and enduring form certain facts and 
realities with regard to the grand and glorious 
group of cathedrals of Northern France, 

They have appeared as demanding some- 
thing more than the conventional guide-book, 
or even technical estimates as to their perfec- 
tions, and the belief is that the gathering to- 
gether, after this fashion, of the contemporary 
information not always to the hand of the 
general reader presents an attraction as ap- 
pealing and deserving of a place on the book- 
shelf as would be an avowed reference work, 
or a volume made to sell on the strength of its 
bulk or ornateness, or, lacking these ques- 
tionable attributes, presented in the guise of 
a whilom text-book, the sole province of 

vii 



Apologia 

which is to impart " knowledge " after a cer- 
tain well recognized and set pattern. 

It is believed that, regardless of much 
that has been said and written anent the 
subject, the fact remains that some consider- 
able numbers of persons may be supposed to 
exist who would be glad of a further sugges- 
tion which would make possible an acquaint- 
ance with the cathedrals of France as a part 
of their own personal experience. To all such, 
then, it is to be hoped this book will appeal, 

F. M. 



viii 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 


PAGE 




Part I. Transition Examples 




I. 


Introductory ..... 


41 


II. 


Notre Dame de Laon .... 


43 


III. 


Notre Dame de Noyon 


49 


IV. 


Notre Dame de Soissons 

Part II. The Grand Group 


. 54 


I. 


Introductory ..... 


61 


_ II. 


Notre Dame d'Amiens . 








64 


III. 


St. Pierre de Beauvais . 








70 


-IV. 


Notre Dame de Rouen . 








79 


-V. 


Basilique de St. Denis . 








93 


--VI. 


Notre Dame de Paris . 








lOI 


VII. 


St. Julien ; Le Mans 








113 


VIII. 


Notre Dame de Chartres 








123 


IX. 


Notre Dame de Reims . 








132 




Part III. The Cathedrals of the Loire 




I. 


Introductory ...... 


147 


" II. 


St. Croix d'Orleans . . , . . 


150 


III. 


St. Louis de Blois 








156 



Contents 



IV. St. Gatien de Tours 
V. St. Maurice d' Angers 
VI. St. Pierre de Nantes 



163 

173 
183 



Part IV. Central France 

I. St. Etienne d'Auxerre . 

II. St. Etienne de Bourges . 

III. St. Cyr and St, Juliette de Nevers 

IV. St. Mammes de Langres 
V. Notre Dame d'Auxonne 



191 
199 
209 
218 
220 



Part V. East of Paris 

I. Introductory 

II. Notre Dame de Boulogne-sur-Mer 

III. Notre Dame de Cambrai 

IV. Notre Dame de St. Omer 
V. St. Vaast d'Arras . 

VI. St. Etienne de Toul 

VII. St. Etienne, Chalons-sur-Marne 

VIII. St. Die 

IX. St. Lazare d'Autun 

X. St. Benigne de Dijon 

XI. Notre Dame de Senlis 

XII. St. Etienne de Meaux 

XIII. St. Pierre de Troyes 

XIV. St. Etienne de Sens 



Part VI. Western Normandy and Brittany 



I. Introductory 
II. Notre Dame d'Evreux 



223 
231 

234 
237 
242 
247 
251 
254 
257 
262 
266 
270 
274 
279 



285 
288 



Contents 



III. Notre Dame d'Alen9on 

IV. St. Pierre de Lisieux . 
V. Notre Dame de Seez . 

VI. Notre Dame de Bayeux 

VII. Notre Dame de St. Lo . 

VIII. Notre Dame de Coutances 

IX. St. Pierre d'Avranches . 

X. St. Sol, Dol-de-Bretagne 

XI. St. Malo and St. Servan 

XII. Treguier 

XIII. St. Brieuc . 

XIV. St. Pol de Leon . 
XV. St. Corentin de Quimper 

XVI. Vannes 



Appendices 

I. The Architectural Divisions of France 

II. A List of the Departments of France 

III. The Church in France ..... 

IV. A List of the Larger French Churches Which 

Were at One Time Cathedrals 
V. Chronology of the Chief Styles and Examples of 
Church Building . ... 

VI. Dimensions and Chronology .... 

VII. The French Kings from Charlemagne Onward 

VIII. Measurements of the Cathedrals at Amiens and 

Salisbury ....... 

IX. French Metres Reduced to English Feet . 
X. A Brief Glossary of Architectural Terms . 



296 
301 

305 
310 

315 

321 
326 
329 
335 
339 
342 
345 
348 
351 



353 
356 
359 

362 

365 
366 

383 

384 
385 
386 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Notre Dame de Noyon 

Notre Dame de Laon 

Notre Dame de Noyon 

Notre Dame d'Amiens 

St. Pierre de Beauvais 

Notre Dame de Rouen 

Basilique de St. Denis 

Oriflamme of St. Denis 

Notre Dame de Paris 

Notre Dame de Paris from the R 

St. Julien ; Le Mans 

Notre Dame de Chartres 

Notre Dame de Reims 

St. Croix d' Orleans . 

St. Louis de Blois 

St. Gatien de Tours 

Flying Buttress, St. Gatien de Tours 

St. Maurice d' Angers 

St. Pierre de Nantes 

St. Etienne d'Auxerre 

St. Etienne de Bourges 

St. Cyr and St. Juliette de Nevers 

St. Mammes de Langres . 



Frontispiece 
43 
47 
64 

70 

11 

91 

100 

lOI 

107 
1 1 1 
1 23 
132 
150 
156 
161 
170 
171 
183 
191 
197 
209 
218 



List of Illustrations 



Nancy .... 

Boulogne, St. Omer, Arras 

Notre Dame de Cambrai . 

St. Etienne de Toul . 

St. Etienne, Chalon-sur-Marne 

St. Die . 

St. Lazare d'Autun . 

St. Benigne de Dijon 

Notre Dame de Senlis 

St. Etienne de Meaux 

St. Pierre de Troyes . 

St. Etienne de Sens 

Notre Dame d'Evreux 

Window Framing — Evreux 

Notre Dame d'Alen9on . 

St. Pierre de Lisieux 

Notre Dame de Seez 

Notre Dame de Bayeux 

Notre Dame de St. Lo 

Notre Dame de Coutances 

St. Pierre d'Avranches 

Column of St. Pierre d'Avranches 

St. Samson, Dol-de-Bretagne 

St. Malo and St. Servan. — Treg 

St. Brieuc 

St. Corentin de Quimper . 

Notre Dame d' Amiens (diagram) 

Map of Angers 

St. Etienne de Bourges (diagram) 

Notre Dame de Laon (diagram) 



List of Illustrations 



St. Julien, le Mans (diagram) 








373 


Map of Nantes 








' 374 


Notre Dame de Noyon (diagram) 








375 


Notre Dame de Paris (diagram) . 








376 


Notre Dame de Reims (diagram) 








377 


Flying Buttresses, Reims . 








377 


Notre Dame de Rouen (diagram) 








378 


Basilique de St. Denis (diagrams) 








380 


Map of Tours . . „ . 








. 381 


Charles VII 








383 


Ground Plan .... 








386 


Cross Section . . , . 








. 387 


Interior ...... 








388 


Cross Section .... 








389 



it-tHCS O 




The Cathedrals 
of Northern France 

INTRODUCTION 

An attempt to enumerate the architectural 
monuments of France is not possible without 
due consideration being given to the topo- 
graphical divisions of the country, vs^hich, so 
far as the early population and the expression 
of their arts and customs is concerned, natu- 
rally divides itself into two grand divisions of 
influences, widely dissimilar. 

Historians, generally, agree that the country 
which embraces the Frankish influences in the 
north, as distinct from that where are spoken 
the romance languages, finds its partition 
somewhere about a line drawn from the 
mouth of the Loire to the Swiss lakes. Terri- 
torially, this approaches an equal division, 
with the characteristics of architectural forms 
well nigh as equally divided. Indeed, Fergus- 

II 



Introduction 

son, who in his general estimates and valua- 
tions is seldom at fault, thus divides it: — 
'' on a line which follows the valley of the 
Loire to a point between Tours and Orleans, 
then southwesterly to Lyons, and thence along 
the valley of the Rhone to Geneva." 

With such a justification, then, it is natural 
that some arbitrary division should be made in 
arranging the subject matter of a volume 
which treats, in part only, of a country or its 
memorials ; even though the influences of one 
section may not only have lapped over into 
the other, but, as in certain instances, extended 
far beyond. As the peoples were divided in 
speech, so were they in their manner of 
building, and the most thoroughly consist- 
ent and individual types were in the main 
confined to the environment of their birth. 
A notable exception is found in Brittany, 
where is apparent a generous admixture of 
style which does not occur in the churches of 
the first rank; referring to the imposing struc- 
tures of the Isle de France and its immediate 
vicinity. The '' Grand Cathedrals " of this 
region are, perhaps, most strongly impressed 
upon the mind of whoever takes something 
more than a superficial interest in the subject 
as the type which embodies the loftiest princi- 

12 



Introduction 

pies of Gothic forms, and, as such, they are 
perhaps best remembered by that very con- 
siderable body of persons known as intelligent 
observers. 

The strongest influences at work in the north 
from the twelfth century onward have been 
in favour of the Gothic or pointed styles, 
whilst, in the south, civic and ecclesiastical 
architecture alike were of a manifest Byzan- 
tine or Romanesque tendency. No better 
illustration of this is possible than to recall the 
fact that, when the builders of the fifteenth 
century undertook to complete that astound- 
ingly impressive choir at Beauvais,they sought 
to rival in size and magnificence its namesake 
at Rome, which, under the care of the Pontiff 
himself, was then being projected. Thus it was 
that this thoroughly Gothic structure of the 
north was to stand forth as the indicator of 
local influences, as contrasted with the Italian 
design and plans of the St. Peter's of the south. 

A discussion of the merits of any territorial 
claims as to the inception of what is commonly 
known as Gothic architecture, under which 
name, for the want of a more familiar term, 
it shall be referred to herein, is quite apart 
from the purport of this volume, and, as such, 
it were best ignored. The statement, how- 

13 



Introduction 

ever, may be made that it would seem clearly 
to be the development of a northern influence 
which first took shape after a definite form 
in a region safely comprehended as lying 
within the confines of northeastern France, 
the Netherlands, and the northern Rhine 
Provinces. Much has been written on this 
debatable subject and doubtless will continue 
to be, either as an arrow shot into the air 
by some wary pedant, or an equally uncon- 
vincing statement, without proof, of some 
mere follower in the footsteps of an illustrious, 
but behind the times, expert. It matters not, 
as a mere detail, whether it was brought from 
the East in imperfect form by the Crusaders, 
and only received its development at the hands 
of some ingenious northerner, or not. Its de- 
velopment was certainly rapid and sure in the 
great group which we know to-day in northern 
France, and, if proof were wanted, the exist- 
ing records in stone ought to be sufficiently 
convincing to point out the fact that here Medi- 
aeval Gothic architecture received its first and 
most perfect development. The Primaire: 
the development of the style finding its best 
example at Paris. The Secondaire: the Per- 
fectionnement at Reims, and its Apogee at 
Amiens. The Tertiaire: practically the be- 

H 



Introduction 

ginning of the decadence, in St. Ouen at 
Rouen, only a shade removed from the debase- 
ment which soon followed. As to the merits 
or demerits of the contemporary structures of 
other nations, that also would be obviously 
of comparative unimportance herein except so 
far as a comparison might once and again be 
made to accentuate values. 

The earliest art triumphs of the French 
may well be said to have been in the develop- 
ment and perfectionnement of Mediaeval 
(Gothic) architecture. Its builders planned 
amply, wisely, and well, and in spite of the 
interruptions of wars, of invasions, and of 
revolutions, there is nowhere to be found upon 
the earth's surface so many characteristic at- 
tributes of Mediaeval Gothic architecture as 
is to be observed in this land, extending from 
the Romanesque types of Frejus Perigueux 
and Angouleme to that classical degenera- 
tion commonly called the Renaissance, a more 
offensive example of which could hardly be 
found than in the conglomerate structure of 
St. Etienne du Mont at Paris, or the more 
modern and, if possible, even more ugly 
Cathedral Churches at Arras, Cambrai, or 
Rennes in the north. 

There may be attractive Italian types in 
15 



Introduction 

existence out of Italy; but the fact is that, un- 
less they are undoubted copies of a thoroughly 
consistent style to the very end, they impress 
one as being out of place in a land where the 
heights of its own native style are so exalted. 

Gothic, regardless of the fact as to whether 
it be the severe and unornamental varieties 
of the Low Countries or the exaggerations of 
the most ornately flamboyant style, appears 
not only to please the casual and average ob- 
server, but the thorough student of ecclesias- 
tical architecture as well. It has come to be the 
accepted form throughout the world of what 
is best representative of the thought and pur- 
pose for which a great church should stand. 

With the Renaissance we have not a little to 
do, when considering the cathedrals of France. 
Seldom, if ever, in the sixteenth century did 
the builder or even the restorer add aught 
but Italian accessories where any considerable 
work was to be accomplished. Why, or how, 
the Renaissance ever came into being it is quite 
impossible for any one to say, sans doubt, as is 
the first rudimentary invention of Gothic 
itself. Perhaps it was but the outcome of a 
desire for something different, if not new; 
but in the process the taste of the people fell 
to a low degree. Architecture may be said to 

16 



Introdtiction 

have been all but divorced from life, and, 
while the fabric is a dead thing of itself, it is 
a very living and human expression of the 
tendencies of an era. The Renaissance sought 
to revive painting and sculpture and to in- 
corporate them into architectural forms. 
Whether after a satisfactory manner or not 
appears to have been no concern with the 
revivers of a style which was entirely unsuited 
in its original form to a northern latitude. 
That which answered for the needs and de- 
sires of a southern race could not be boldly 
transplanted into another environment and 
live without undergoing an evolution which 
takes time, a fact not disproven by later events. 
The Italians themselves were the undoubted 
cause of the debasement of the classical style, 
evidences having crept into that country 
nearly a hundred years before the least ves- 
tiges were known in either France or Ger- 
many, the Netherlands, or England, and 
which, though traceable, had left but slight 
impress in Spain. It is doubtless not far wrong 
to attribute its introduction into France as the 
outcome of the wanderings in Italy of Charles 
VIII., in the latter years of the XV. century. 
As a result of this it is popularly supposed that 
it was introduced into the domestic architec- 

17 



Introduction 

ture of the nobles who had accompanied the 
king. Here it found perhaps its most satisfy- 
ing expression; in those magnificent chateaux 
of the Loire, and the neighbourhood of Tours 
and Blois, ever a subject for sentimental 
praise. One would not seek to pass condemna- 
tion upon the application of revived classic 
features where they were but the expression 
of an individual taste, as in a chateau whose 
owner so chose to build and embellish it. Cer- 
tainly no more splendid edifices of their kind 
are known than the magnificent establishments 
at Blois, Chenonceaux, Chambord, or Chau- 
mont. The style appears, however, out of 
place; an admixture meaningless in itself 
and in its application when, with a Gothic 
foundation bequeathed them, builders sought 
to incorporate into a cathedral such palpable 
inconsistencies as was frequently done. 

The building of the chateaux was perhaps 
the first anti-Gothic step in France and proved 
to be an influence which spread not slowly, 
as to decorative detail at least, and soon of 
itself established a decided non-Gothic type. 

It was but natural that the cathedral build- 
ers should have followed to some extent this 
new influence. The Church was ever seeking 
to strengthen its popularity, the bishops en- 

i8 



Introduction 

sconced themselves in their cathedral cities as 
snugly as did a feudal lord in his castle, and 
their emulation of wealth outside of the 
Church was but an effort to keep their status 
on a plane with that of the other power which 
also demanded allegiance of the people. It 
is to be regretted that they did not pass this 
manifestation by, or at least not encum- 
bered an otherwise consistent Gothic fabric 
with superimposed meaningless detail. Such 
decorative embellishments as are represented 
by the tomb of Louis XII. at St. Denis, 
and the tombs of the cardinals at Rouen, may 
be considered characteristic, though they bear 
earlier dates by some twenty years than the 
south portal of Beauvais, which is thoroughly 
the best of Gothic, or St. Maclou at Rouen, 
which, though highly florid, is without a trace 
of anti-Gothic. The extreme (though not a 
cathedral church) may be seen at St. Etienne 
du Mont, wherein the effort is made to incor- 
porate large masses of pseudo-classical decora- 
tion with Gothic, and, alas, with sad effect. 

For the most part, the Gothic cathedrals of 
France, as such, while closely related to each 
other in their design and arrangements, have 
little to do with those which lie without the 
confines of the country, either in general fea- 

19 



Introduction 

tures or in detail. The type is distinctively 
one which stands by its own perfections. In 
size, while in many instances not having the 
length of nave of several in England, they have 
nearly always an equal, if not a greater, width 
and an almost invariably greater height, 
though not equal in superficial area to St. 
Peter's in Italy, the Dom at Cologne, or even 
the cathedral at Seville in Spain. 

Such Romanesque types as are to be seen 
to the northward of the Loire are mostly found 
in the smaller churches of Brittany, while the 
early transition type, so familiar throughout 
the Netherlands, is, in France, usually seen in 
the neighbourhood of the frontiers of the 
Low Countries. 

^' Les Grandes Cathedrales " of the north 
are distinctly those of Paris, Amiens, Reims, 
Rouen, Beauvais, and Chartres; and it is to 
them that reference must continually be made ; 
while the severely plain transitory types of 
Noyon or Soissons, or the more effective devel- 
opment of Laon, and the flamboyant structures 
of Troyes and Nantes, at least lean toward the 
decadence. 

The difficulty of assigning ranks to these 
monumental cathedrals is made the greater 
by reason of the fact that to-day it is with but 

20 



Introduction 

one people that we have to reckon, so far as 
their temperament and environment is con- 
cerned. Since feudal times the movement has 
ever been toward one nation, one people, and 
one view, different from that presented in the 
middle ages. 

For centuries after the break of Roman 
power it had been mostly one local influence 
against another which prevented perfect co- 
hesion to any national spirit, and thus it was 
that the tendencies of the cathedral builders, 
though Roman as to their teaching and reli- 
gion, and doubtless, in many instances, with 
regard to their birth as well, followed no 
special style until the era of Gothic develop- 
ment. Unconsciously, transitory types crept 
in, until suddenly throughout northern Europe 
there bloomed forth within less than a cen- 
tury of time the so-called Gothic in all its 
splendour, and with scarce a century between 
the commencement and the completion of 
some of the most notable of the group. The 
Romanesque types which still lingered in 
Brittany, though well worthy of special con- 
sideration to-day, are unimportant and in a 
way insignificant when compared with the 
grand group. 

To most of us it will be impossible to con- 

21 



Introduction 

jure up any more significant thought with 
regard to medieval church architecture than 
that fostered by the memories of acquaintance- 
ship with these examples of north France ; an 
opinion which is further strengthened when 
it is also recalled that they are representative 
of the first really national artistic expression. 
For this reason alone, if for no other, the hasty 
critics who have so handily claimed prece- 
dence elsewhere, might profitably review the 
facts of the circumstance which led to so uni- 
versal an adoption of the full-blown style in 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

The Romanesque peoples were confined 
southwards of mid-France at the time of the 
withdrawal of the Roman legions, while, in 
the north, the conquering Franks sought to 
wipe out every vestige of their past influence; 
hence it may be considered that the new man- 
ner of building had everything in favour of 
its speedy growth. It was thus definitely 
assured of a warm welcome, and, following in 
the footsteps of Clovis himself, the rulers 
were more than willing to aid what they be- 
lieved might be a strengthening influence, 
politically, as well as morally. 

The style may be justly said to be a natural 
and growthful expression of a race, and more 

22 



Introduction 

significant than all else is the fact that no- 
where, not even on the Rhine, which with 
northern France claims the origin of the style, 
is to be found any single example equalling 
in any like measure the perfections of " Les 
Grandes Cathedrales Frangaises," though it be 
recalled that in many instances the German 
buildings were planned and often erected by 
French architects and artisans. 

Among the two thousand or more ^' Monu- 
ments Historiques " paternally cared for by 
the French government and under the direct 
control of the Ministry of Public Instruction 
and the Beaux Arts, none are of the relative 
importance, historically or artistically, of the 
Grand Cathedrals. Certain objects, classed as 
megalithic and antique remains, may be the 
connecting links between the past and the pres- 
ent by which the antiquarian weaves the 
threads of his historical lore; but neither these 
nor the reliques which have been dug from the 
ground or untombed from later constructive 
elements, all of which are generously in- 
cluded in the general scheme by the Depart- 
ment of Beaux Arts, which has provided a 
fund for their preservation and care, have one 
tithe of the appealing interest which these 
great churches bespeak on behalf of the con- 

23 



Introduction 

temporary life of the times in which they were 
built, reflecting as they do many correlated 
events, and forming, in the interweaving of 
the history of their inception and construction, 
an epitome of well-nigh all the contemporary 
events of their environment, as well as the 
greater parts which they may have played in 
general affairs of state. 

The best example of a part so played is that 
of the cathedral at Reims, which saw the 
crowning within its walls of nearly every mon- 
arch of France from the time of Philippe 
Augustus (1173) to that of Charles X. (1823). 
The monarchs of France, a long and pictur- 
esque line, have ever sought to ally the Church 
on their side, and right well they have been 
served, not ignoring, of course, certain notable 
lapses. In the main, however, the rulers and 
the people alike, whatever may have been the 
periodical dissensions, combined the forces 
which made possible the projection and erec- 
tion of these noble examples of an art which, 
in the Gothic forms at least, here came to its 
greatest and most interesting phase. 

Invasion, revolution, and the stress of 
weather and time, all played their part in the 
general desecrations which sooner or later 
followed; far the most serious of these visible 

24 



Introduction 

damages reflected upon us to-day being the 
malpractices occurring at the Revolution, 
whether at the hands of a sam culotte or of the 
most respectable of bourgeois, led away by 
the excitement of revolt. The depredations 
were irreparable; they razed, burned, or ruth- 
lessly shattered shrines, statues, or even reli- 
quaries, as at Reims, where the Sainted 
Ampulla, which contained the miraculous oil 
brought by a dove from heaven, now pre- 
served in reconstructed fragments in the sac- 
risty, was dashed to pieces in a fury of 
uncontrollable wrath. 

The paucity of sculptured decoration in 
certain places only too plainly designed for it 
is, too, frequently painfully apparent. Such 
sculptured decoration and glass as were easily 
to hand met with perhaps the most ready 
spoliation, while here and there, from some 
miraculous reason, a gem was left entire, 
though likely enough in a bruised and shat- 
tered setting. 

This is what befell most of the great 
churches, and, for this reason, any work treat- 
ing of these architectural glories of France 
must make due allowance in hazarding opin- 
ions as to the merit or lack of merit of any 
particular example as it now exists, as com- 

25 



Introduction 

pared with what it may have been as it once 
was, or had it been completed in accordance 
with the original design. 

In local and cathedral archives much valu- 
able and interesting information exists, treat- 
ing in this very manner such embellishments 
as may to-day be lacking; but unfortunately 
such facts are often buried in a mass of other 
irrelevant material which would make its dis- 
covery unusually difficult to any but a very 
learned local antiquarian. In this same con- 
nection, also, there is a dearth of illustrative 
material which can be depended upon as to 
minutiae or accuracy of detail. Hence it is pos- 
sible to deal only with such general facts as 
may be supported by the best contemporary in- 
formation based upon the researches of others. 
It may be well to note here, however, a fact 
which is often overlooked, namely, that the 
written records of France are not only very 
complete and exhaustive, but, with respect to 
Paris itself, to cite an example, the documen- 
tary history, consecutive and exact, from the 
time of the decline of Roman power is pre- 
served intact, — a record which is perhaps 
not so true of any other large city in Europe. 

In dealing with the cathedrals of the north, 
territorially, we have to consider those exam- 

26 



Introduction 

pies which are generally accepted as being all 
that a cathedral church should be. Of the first 
rank are those gathered not far from the con- 
fines of the mediaeval Isle of France. They 
too, are best representative of the true Gothic 
spirit, while the southernmost examples, those 
of Dijon and Besangon, are of manifest Ro- 
manesque or Byzantine conception. Each, too, 
is somewhat reminiscent of the early German 
manner of building the latter in 'respect to 
the double apse, which is often found across 
the Rhine, but seldom seen in France. The 
most northerly of all is at St. Omer, where 
are the somewhat battered remains of a satis- 
factory Gothic cathedral, although Amiens, 
not far to the south, is perhaps the ideal 
cathedral when considered from a general 
point merely. For the western representative, 
a line running due west from Paris almost into 
the Atlantic finds at Quimper, a small port 
fifteen miles from the sea, the Cathedral of 
St. Corentin, which, though not as lofty, is 
more of the manner of building of the Isle of 
France than one might suppose would be the 
case here in this outpost of Brittany, where are 
found so many evidences of Romanesque influ- 
ences, retained long after they had been given 
over elsewhere. 

27 



Introduction 

Such, then, are the extremes of latitude and 
of architectural style which combine to give 
variety to the interest which is always aroused 
by the contemplation of the masterworks of 
any of the arts, where outside and contiguous 
influences have something in common there- 
with. 

As a type to admire, there is no doubt but 
that the cathedral that possesses an apsidal 
termination of the easterly or choir end, as is 
nearly the universal custom in France, has 
charms and beauties which may be latent, but 
which are simply winning, when it comes to 
picturing the same structure with the squared- 
off ends so common in England. 

It was Stevenson, was it not, who wrote 
of the satisfaction with which one always 
looks upon the east end of a French cathedral, 
" flanging out as it often does in sweeping ter- 
races, and settling down broadly upon the 
earth as though it were meant to stay." Cer- 
tainly nothing of the sort is to be more admired 
than the rare view of the choir buttresses of 
Notre Dame at Paris, likened unto " kneeling 
angels with half-spread wings;" the delicate 
and symmetrical choir buttresses of Amiens; 
the sheer fall of Beauvais ; or the triply effect- 
ive termination of the one-time cathedral of 

28 



Introduction 

Noyon, which falls away in three gracefully 
gentle slopes to the ground. Again Steven- 
son's power as a descriptive writer lingers in 
our memory. He says, of no cathedral in 
particular, " where else is to be found so many 
elegant proportions growing one out of the 
other, and all together in one? . . . Though I 
have heard a considerable variety of sermons, 
I have never yet heard one that was so expres- 
sive as a cathedral." 'Tis the best preacher it- 
self, preaches day and night, not only telling 
you of man's art and aspirations in the past, but 
convicting your own soul of ardent sympa- 
thies ; or rather, like all good preachers, it sets 
you preaching to yourself, — and every man 
is his own doctor of divinity in the last resort. 
To best estimate the charms and values of 
these architectural monuments one should 
consider; first, the history and topography of 
their environment, — /. e. as to why and when 
they may have been planned and built; sec- 
ondly, their personality, as it were, — who were 
their founders, their patrons, their bishops; 
thirdly, the functions in which they may have 
partaken, any significant events which may 
have passed within their walls or centred 
within their sees; and fourthly, the artistic 
beauties of their fabric and its embellishments. 

29 



Introduction 

In most cases all of these values are so inter- 
woven and indissolubly linked with the growth 
of the structure itself from its very earliest 
foundations that it is hardly possible to detail 
this information in true chronological order. 
The picturesque and romantic elements, of 
which there is not a little ; the sordid and bane- 
ful, of which we may wish there were less ; and 
the splendid ceremonials of Church and State; 
all go to make up a chronicle which no ac- 
count, of even a special nature, could afford 
to neglect. 

The picturesque elements of the conver- 
sion and baptism of Clovis by St. Remi at 
Reims in 496, where, on the site of the present 
cathedral, he was adjured to " revere that 
which thou didst burn and burn that which 
thou didst revere," and the crowning on the 
same spot of Charles VII. in 1429 through the 
efforts of the Maid, well represent these 
phases. The meanness and the unjustness of 
her later trial and condemnation in the Abbey 
Church of St. Ouen at Rouen is another. The 
affairs of state consist chiefly of the coronation 
ceremonies which mostly took place at Reims, 
and present a splendid record. Of the mon- 
archs from 11 73 onwards who were not here 
crowned, Henry IV. was crowned at Chartres; 

30 



Introduction 

Napoleon I., at Paris; Louis Philippe, Louis 
XVIIL, and Napoleon IIL were not crowned 
at all. 

Throughout this continuity of state events 
these great churches were performing their 
natural functions of the dissemination of the 
Word. Jealousies and bickerings took place, to 
be sure, but in the main there was harmony, if 
rivalry did exist; else it were not possible that 
so many of these splendid monuments would 
have endured to remind us of their past as well 
as present existence. 

Certain of the sees were merged into greater 
ones, and others were abandoned altogether. 
In this connection there is a curious circum- 
stance with regard to the one-time Bishop of 
Bethleem, who, driven from the Holy Land, 
was given a see at Clamecy, which see com- 
prehended only the village in which he re- 
sided. What remains of the former cathedral 
is now an adjunct to a hotel. The rearrange- 
ment of political divisions of France after the 
Revolution was the further excuse for estab- 
lishing but one diocese to a department, until 
to-day there are but eighty-four sees, admin- 
istered by sixty-seven bishops and seventeen 
archbishops. 

The itinerary of the conventional tour of the 
31 



Introduction 

Continent usually keeps well to the beaten 
track, and so does the conventional traveller. 
He does not always get over to Reims, and 
often does not stop en route at Amiens; sel- 
dom visits Beauvais, and, unless he specially 
sets out to " tour " Brittany, a popular enough 
amusement of the lean of purse in these days, 
knows little of the unique charms of Treguier, 
Quimper, or even of Le Mans, with its sub- 
lime choir, or of Evreux. As for even a nod- 
ding acquaintance with Noyon or Soissons, two 
of the most convincingly beautiful and im- 
pressive transitory types, they might as well be 
in the wilds of Kamchatka, though they are 
both situated in a region well travelled on all 
sides; while Laon, not far distant, is hardly 
known at all, except as a way station en route 
to Switzerland. The cathedrals of mid- 
France are, it is to be feared, even less known 
than would on first thoughts seem probable. 
A certain amount of sentimentality attaches 
itself to the chateaux of the Loire, and some 
acquaintance with their undeniable pleasing 
attributes is the portion of most travellers; 
but, again, such cathedral cities as Besangon, 
Nantes, and Langres are of¥ the well-worn 
road, and their cathedrals might be myths so 
far as a general acquaintance with them is 

32 



Introduction 

concerned; while the splendid churches of 
Bourges, Nevers, and Autun are likewise 
practically unknown to the casual traveller. 

Tours, Orleans, and Chartres alone appear 
to be the only recognized representatives of 
this section of France which have hitherto at- 
tracted due attention. 

With the southland this volume does not 
deal; that is a subject to be considered quite 
by itself, — and significantly, more real inter- 
est has been shown with respect to the archi- 
tectural monuments of Avignon, Aries, Nimes, 
Le Puy, Perigueux, Carcassonne, and Poitiers 
than to those of the Midi. Is it that the days 
of cheap travel and specially conducted tours, 
when ten or fifteen guineas will take one to 
the Swiss or Italian lakes, or e'en to Rome 
and Florence, has caused this apparent neg- 
lect of the country lying between? Certainly 
our forefathers travelled more wisely, but then 
prices and means of locomotion were on quite 
a different scale in those days, and not infre- 
quently they were obliged to confine their 
travels and observations to more restricted 
areas. 

Perhaps the most lucid arrangement of 
architectural species is that given by De Cau- 
mont's " Abecedaire d'Architecture," which 



Introduction 

divides the country ethnologically into Brit- 
tany; Normandy; Flanders, including Artois 
and Picardy; Central France (the Isle of 
France, Champagne, Orleanois, Main, An- 
jou, Touraine, and Berri) ; and Burgundy, 
comprehending the former divisions of 
Franche Comte, Lorraine, Alsace (now Bel- 
fort), Nivernois, Bourbonnois, and Lyonnois. 
Of the above divisions, only that of the Isle 
of France with La Brie was originally held by 
the Crown. The political divisions throughout 
France now number eighty-seven departments, 
taking their names from the principal topo- 
graphical features, and replacing in 1790 the 
thirty-two mediaeval provinces, each of which 
had their own characteristics of social and 
political life, and of which each in turn pro- 
gressed, stagnated, or fell backward accord- 
ing to local or periodical conditions. Both 
the arts of peace and of war have left an in- 
eradicable impress. In the thirteenth century 
the various provinces became welded together 
into one perfect whole under Philippe Augus- 
tus and the sainted Louis, but retained to no 
small extent, even as they do unto to-day, their 
distinctive local characteristics. 

Because of its cathedrals alone, the Isle of 
France stands preeminent among the prov- 

34 



Introduction 

inces for each of the thirteen provincial styles 
of architecture which are allocated by the 
Societe des Monuments Historiques. A com- 
paratively small and unified province, it com- 
prehends within and contiguous to its borders 
more of the attributes and principles of a con- 
sistent Mediaeval architectural style than is 
elsewhere to be observed. From Rouen on 
the west to Reims on the east, northward to 
Amiens and southwesterly to Chartres, are 
grouped the show pieces of the world's Gothic 
architecture. Not alone with the respect to 
the Grand Cathedrals is this region so richly 
endowed, but also because of the smaller and 
less important, but no less attractive or inter- 
esting examples of Noyon, Senlis, Laon, Sois- 
sons, with their one-time cathedral churches 
and other varied ecclesiastical and secular 
edifices. 

Beauvais, Gisors, Gourney, Cires-les-Mello^ 
Creil, Royamont, Nogent-les-Vierges, Villers- 
St.-Pol, indeed nearly every village and town 
within the royal domain, present values and 
comparisons which place nearly all of its con- 
temporary structures, be they large or small, 
at a grand height above those of other less 
prolific sections. Lest it be thought that this 
statement is drawn largely, and that fineness 

35 



Introduction 

and balance of estimate are lacking, it suffices 
to state that it is not alone from study and 
research, but from frequent personal intima- 
cies that the region has ever proved an inex- 
haustible store of architectural values, and one 
which most well-known authorities, with one 
accord, place in the very first rank. 

Arthur Young, than whom no more per- 
spicuous observer has ever chronicled his im- 
pressions, wrote (1704) that to see the best of 
France, the part most varied in topography, 
and resourceful and attractive in its monu- 
ments, one should land at Havre and follow 
the sinuosity of the Seine to Paris, thence the 
highroad to Moulins and on to the Rhone at 
Valence, an outline which somewhat ap- 
proaches the limitations of territory of which 
this book treats. To be sure, he wrote of eco- 
nomic and agricultural conditions, and he 
mostly made his pertinent observations on 
land holdings, stock keeping, and hedgerows, 
or rather that lack of them which is so appar- 
ent throughout France; but these details of 
themselves only suggest more complete evi- 
dences of the existing forces which indicate 
the growth of the wealth and power which 
has made this region so rich in its architec- 



3^ 



Introduction 

tural memorials of the past, and which ought 
to more than compensate for any lack of 
scenic grandeur. 

It is to be regretted, of course, that none of 
these larger cathedrals are to be seen to-day 
in their completely perfected forms. To what 
extent would not the glories of Reims, of 
Amiens, of Beauvais, or of Rouen, be en- 
hanced, were it possible for us to even imag- 
ine their splendour, were they possessed of the 
symmetry and well-favoured situation of the 
Dom at Cologne? And so it is that we can 
but feel regret when we mentally note the 
lack of nave at Beauvais, of spires at Bourges, 
and, yet again, regret even with more pain 
the monstrousness of the cast-iron fteche 
which has been added to the central tower 
at Rouen. But these are after all minor 
imperfections — seldom, if ever, in aught 
but pleasurable anticipation, do we see in 
the masterpieces of art or nature a perfect 
unity; so why seek to negative their virtues 
by futile criticism? It would seem to be 
all-sufficient that such details, sins of omis- 
sion or commission, should be noted merely, 
that we may pass on to other charms which 
must compel our allegiance. 



37 



Introduction 

When we visit the cathedrals of the Isle of 
France, we are at once in the midst of the best 
examples of French Gothic architecture, or of 
French Mediaeval architecture, if the phrase 
is to be preferred. 



7."^ 



PART I 

Transition Examples 



INTRODUCTORY 

SoiSSONS, with Noyon and Laon, all within 
perhaps thirty miles of one another, may be 
said to best represent the nurturing and devel- 
opment of the early Gothic of France. These 
simple and somewhat plain types exemplify 
the style which was in vogue at the same time 
in the Low Countries. It is good Gothic, to 
be sure, — at least, good as to its planning, — 
but without that ornateness or lightness known 
to-day as characteristic of the distinctive 
French type, which so early developed boldly 
and beautifully. 

One observes the resemblances in style be- 
tween the notable cathedral at Tournai, in 
Belgium, the neighbouring types of French 
Flanders, and the cathedrals of this trinity 
of French towns lying contiguous thereto, 
Noyon itself being for long interdependent 
with the see of Tournai. Nevertheless, it is a 
beautiful type which was cradled here in the 

41 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

country called, by Caesar, Suessiones; and 
difficult it would be to attempt to assign pre- 
eminence to any one edifice. 

Noyon, without a doubt, has the greatest 
charm of environment, and is of itself in every 
way a pleasing and satisfying example of what 
should most truly inspire and impress us in a 
cathedral. Stevenson describes it as being 
" the happiest inspiration of mankind, a thing 
as specious as a statue at the first glance, yet, 
on examination, as lively and interesting as a 
forest in detail. The height of its spires can- 
not be taken by trigonometry: they measure 
absurdly short, but how tall they are to the 
admiring eye. ... I sat outside of my hotel 
and the sweet groaning thunder of the organ 
floated out of the church like a summons '' ; — 
and much more of the same sort, all of which 
tells us that, once we find ourselves on a plane 
of intimacy with a great church, we continu- 
ally receive new impressions and inspirations, 
and it is in this vein that one who has known 
this group of simple but fascinating churches 
on their own ground, so to put it, can but seek 
to convey the idea that it is good that we have 
such contrasting types as a relief and an anti- 
dote to an appetite which otherwise might 
become sated. 

42 




^ ^p:^i^^pfs'Ds<^\^^j\roT9i€ z>»^-^£j:^ _f ^^^^^^7"]:iogCT 



II 



NOTRE DAME DE LAON 



For over twelve hundred years, until the see 
was abolished at the Revolution, Laon was the 
seat of a bishop who in point of rank was sec- 
ond only to the primate at Reims. Crowning 
the apex of a long isolated hill, upon which 
the entire town, now a fortress of the third 
class, is situated, the cathedral of Notre Dame 
de Laon, still so called locally, has endured 
since the beginning of the twelfth century, and 
may be considered a thoroughly representative 
transition example. 

The present structure is on the site of one 
43 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

burned in 1112, and during comparatively re- 
cent years has been entirely restored. 

Its crowning glory is in the disposition and 
number of its fine group of towers : two flank 
the western fagade, and are rectangular at the 
base, dwindling to a smaller polygon, which is 
flanked with corner belfries and pierced by a 
tall lancet in the central structure, showing a 
wonderful lightness and open effect. A curi- 
ous and unique feature of these towers is the 
addition of four oxen in carven stone perched 
high aloft in the belfries. These sculptured 
animals may be merely another expression of 
symbols of superstition, and if so are far more 
pleasing than some of the hideous and mon- 
strous gargoyles ofttimes seen. Two other 
towers, each 190 feet in height, adjoin the 
transepts, to each of which is attached a 
double-storied, apsidal, ancient chapel. Two 
similarly projected towers are lacking. The 
lantern is square, with a shallow, conical, mod- 
ern roof. 

In the transition type Romanesque influ- 
ences were evidently dying hard. The Gothic 
was seldom full blown, and at Laon shows but 
the merest trace of pointedness to the arches 
of the western fagade, either in the portals 
or in the higher openings. 

44 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The lack of a circular termination to the 
choir is but another indication of a link with 
a transitory past; an undeniably false note and 
one very unusual in France, the choir being of 
the squared-off variety so common in England. 
This may be coincident with the English cus- 
tom of the time, or it may be directly due to 
a local English influence; — most probably 
the latter, inasmuch as an English prelate held 
the see for a time, and the city, in the early 
fifteenth century, was for a number of years 
in English hands. It is significant that in some 
of the smaller churches of the diocese is to be 
noted the same treatment. 

The rose windows of both the eastern and 
western fagades are Gothic in inception and 
treatment, and are unusually acceptable speci- 
mens of these supreme efforts of the French 
mediaeval builders, the glass therein being dis- 
tinctly good, though perhaps not remarkable. 

The transepts are rectangular and, with the 
ensemble of the entire structure, were their 
towers completed, there would be produced, 
not only a unique example, but a towering ef- 
fect only a degree less interesting than the 
perfectly proportioned pyramidal form so 
much admired in the perfectly developed 
Gothic. 

45 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The interior is equally attractive with the 
exterior, and, though the church is not by any 
means of remarkable dimensions, it presents 
in its appropriate disposition of detail a far 
more roomy and pleasing arrangement than 
many a larger example. 

The transepts are divided into a nave and 
side aisles, the columns which partition them, 
like those of the nave proper, being cylin- 
drical and of massive proportions, which, how- 
ever, lighten as they rise to the vaulting. 
They are unusually symmetrical when viewed 
together, the capitals of the lower series being 
ornately carved, each of a varying design. 

Above the aisles are lofty galleries. The 
nave chapels were added in the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. The stained glass, like 
that of the rose windows, is in the nave dis- 
tinctly good, particularly that of the lower 
range on the southerly side. The pulpit, of 
carved wood of the Renaissance period, is not 
of the importance and quality of this class 
of work to be seen across the Rhine border. 

The former Bishop's palace, adjoining the 
left of the choir, is now the Palais de Justice. 
A few remains of a former Gothic cloister are 
to be remarked, surrounded by the later con- 
struction. 

46 



Ill 

NOTRE DAME DE NOYON 

In Notre Dame at Noyon, Notre Dame at 
Laon, and the cathedral at Tournai, is to be 
noted the very unusual division of the interior 
elevation into four ranges of openings, this 
effect being only seen at Paris and Rouen 
among the large cathedrals. Noyon and Laon 
borrowed, perhaps, from Tournai, where 
building was commenced at least a century be- 
fore either of the French examples first took 
form. It is perhaps not essential that such an 
arrangement be made in order to give an effect 
of loftiness, which might not otherwise exist; 
indeed, it is a question if the reverse is not 
actually the case, though the effect is undenia- 
bly one of grandeur. Soissons, too, may rightly 
enough be included in the group, though the 
points of resemblance in this case are confined 
to the rising steps to either transept, coupled 
with the joint possession of circumambient 
aisles, and at least the suggested intent of cir- 

49 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

cular apsidal terminations to the transepts; 
though it appears that here this plan was ulti- 
mately changed and one transept finished off 
with the usual rectangular ending. 

In this Noyon plainly excels, and there is 
found nowhere else in France the perfect 
trefoil effect produced by the apsidal termina- 
tions of both transepts and choir. So far as 
the transepts are concerned, they are of the 
manner affected by the builders on the Rhine, 
notably in the Minster at Bonn, at Cologne, 
and again at Neuss in the neighbourhood of 
Cologne. With Noyon apparently nothing is 
lacking either in the perfections of its former 
cathedral or in its immediate environment 
The country round about is thoroughly agri- 
cultural, and free from the soot and grime 
of a manufacturing community. Amid a set- 
ting at once historic and romantic, it has for 
neighbours the chateaux of Coucy and Perri- 
fonds, with Compiegne and Chantilly not far 
distant. The town is unprogressive enough, 
and the vast barge traffic of the Oise sidles by, 
not a mile away, as if it were all unconscious 
of the existence of any signs of modern civi- 
lization. As a matter of fact, it hardly is mod- 
ern. The accommodation for the w^eary trav- 
eller is of a satisfying and gratifying quality, 

50 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

as the comparatively few visitors to the place 
v^ell know. The city is an ancient foundation, 
having been known as the Noviodunum of the 
Romans. Here Charlemagne was crowned 
King of the Franks in 768, and Hugh Capet 
elected king in 987; and here, in an important 
stronghold of Catholicism, as it had long been, 
Calvin was born in 1509. 

Altogether there is much to be found here 
to charm and stimulate our imagination. As 
a type the cathedral stands preeminent. As to 
detail and state of preservation, they, too, leave 
little to be desired, though the appreciative 
author of a charming and valuable work treat- 
ing of a good half hundred or more of the 
" architectural glories of France " bemoans 
the lack of a satisfying daily " Office." This 
may be a fault, possibly, if such be really the 
case. The fabric of the church has stood the 
wear and tear of time and stress exceeding 
well. Built in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies, it is a thoroughly harmonious and 
pleasing whole, and we can well believe all 
that may have been said of it by the few able 
critics who have passed judgment upon its 
style, as well as the sentiment conveyed by the 
phrase that it is " one of the most graceful and 
lovable of all the cathedrals of France." The 

51 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

bishopric was suppressed after the Revolution, 
and the church is now a dependency of the 
Bishop of Beauvais. 

The elongated belfry towers are perhaps 
the first and most noticeable feature ; secondly, 
the overhanging porch with its supporting 
frontal buttresses; thirdly, the before-men- 
tioned tri-apsidal efifect of the easterly end; 
and, last but not least, the general grouping of 
the whole structure in combination with the 
buildings which are gathered about its 
haunches, though with no suspicion of a 
detracting element as in some sordid and 
crowded cities, where, in spite of undeniable 
picturesqueness, is presented a squalor and 
poverty not creditable either to the city of 
its habitation or to the cathedral authorities 
themselves. From every point of vantage the 
steeples of Notre Dame de Noyon add the one 
ingredient which makes a unity of the entire 
ensemble, — a true old-world atmosphere, a 
town seen in not too apparent a state of unre- 
pair and certainly not a degenerate. 

The interior presents no less striking or 
noble features. It is not stupendous or re- 
markably awesome; but it is grand, with a 
subtleness which is inexpressible. Round and 
pointed arches are intermixed, and there is a 

52 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

notable display of the round variety in the 
upper ranges of the quadrupled elevation of 
the nave, the lightness, which might otherwise 
have been marred, being preserved through 
the employment of a series of simple lancets 
in the clerestory of the choir. Rearward of 
the south transept are the chapter-house and 
the scanty remains of a Gothic cloister, where 
a somewhat careworn combination of the 
forces of nature and art have culminated in 
giving an unusually old-world charm to this 
apparently neglected gem, as well representa- 
tive of early French Gothic as any in existence 
to-day. 



i^ 



IV 

NOTRE DAME DE SOISSONS 

SoiSSONS^ the Other primitive example, is at 
once a surprise and a disappointment. From 
the railway, on entering the town, one is highly 
impressed with the grouping of a sky-piercing, 
twin-spired structure of ample and symmet- 
rical proportions; and at some distance there- 
from is seen another building, possibly enough 
of less importance. Curiously, it is the cathe- 
dral which is the less imposing, and, until one 
is well up with the beautifully formed spires, 
he hardly realizes that they represent all that 
is left of the majestic Abbey of St. Jean des 
Vignes, where Becket spent nine long years. 
It is a mere bit of stage scenery, with height 
and breadth, but no thickness. It is a pity 
that such a charming structure as this noble 
building must once have been is now left 
to crumble. The magnificent rose window, or 
rather the circular opening which it once oc- 
cupied, is now but a mere orifice, of great pro- 

54 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

portions, but destitute of glazing. The entire 
confines of the building, which crowns a slight 
eminence at the entrance of the town, are now 
given over to the use of the military authori- 
ties. 

A little to the right lies the one-time cathe- 
dral of Notre Dame, Soissons being another of 
the ci-devant bishoprics suppressed after the 
Revolution by the redistribution which gave 
but one diocese to a Department. Though 
not unpleasing, its f agade is marred by its lack 
of symmetry, while the tower, which rises on 
the right 215 feet, is not sufficiently striking to 
redeem what otherwise is an ordinary enough 
ensemble. The tower to the left was never 
raised above where it now ends, and the f agade, 
lacking the charm which the edifice might 
otherwise have had, were the towers as com- 
plete and well proportioned as are those of a 
later date which grace the remains of the old 
abbey, will be for ever wanting until this com- 
pletion be carried out. 

Romanesque is plainly noticeable in mixture 
with the early Gothic. The three portals are 
not remarkable, or uniform, and are severely 
plain, and, though of a noticeable receding 
depth, are bare and unpeopled. A well-pro- 
portioned rose window, though not so large as 

55 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

many in the greater cathedrals, has graceful 
radiating spokes and good glass. This is 
flanked by two unpierced lancet-pointed 
window-frames which but accentuate the 
plainness of the entire fagade. Above is an 
arcaded gallery which was intended to cross 
the entire front, but which now stops where the 
gable joins the northerly tower. Restoration 
has been carried on, not sparingly, but in good 
taste, with the result that, in spite of its new- 
ness at the present writing, it appears as a con- 
sistent and thoroughly conscientious piece of 
work, and not the mere patchwork that such 
repairs usually suggest. 

The guide-books tell one that Soissons is 
famous for its trade in haricot beans, and inci- 
dentally for the beans themselves, and for the 
great number of sieges which it has undergone, 
the last being that conducted by the Germans, 
who took possession in October, 1870, after a 
bombardment of three days. 

Fergusson makes the statement, which is 
well taken, that the Cathedral of Notre Dame 
de Soissons, while not in any sense mer- 
iting the term magnificent, presents, in its 
interior arrangements, at least, a most sym- 
metrical and harmonious ensemble. A curi- 
ous though not unpleasing effect is produced 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

by the blackened pointing of the interior ma- 
sonry, of piers, walls, and vaulting alike. An 
unusual feature is the circumambient aisles 
to the transepts and the suggestion that a trefoil 
apsidal termination was originally thought 
of, when the rebuilding was taken in hand in 
the twelfth century. The transept is so com- 
pleted on the south side, which possesses also 
an ancient portal, and, with the two at Noyon 
so done, presents a feature which is as much 
a relief from the usual rectangle as are the 
rounded choirs of Continental churches a 
beauty in advance of the accepted English 
manner of treatment of this detail. 

The choir rises loftily above the transepts 
and nave, and, while the general proportions 
are not such as to suggest undue narrowness, 
the effect is of much greater height than really 
exists. This, too, is apparent when viewing the 
abside itself. 

The Chapel of the Rosary in the north 
transept is overtopped by an effective arrange- 
ment of perpendicular window-framing, sup- 
porting a beautiful rose window of the spoke 
variety. It is safe to say that, had the entire 
space provided been glazed, the effect of light- 
ing would have been unique ^mong the cathe- 
drals of the world. 

57 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The only other decorative embellishments 
are some tapestries, a few well-preserved 
tombs, and an ^' Adoration " supposed to be 
by Rubens, which is perhaps more likely to be 
genuine, because of the situation of the church 
near unto Flanders, than many other examples 
whose claims have even less to support them. 



J8 



PART 11 

The Grand Grottp 



I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Expert opinion, so called, may possibly dif- 
fer as to just what, or what not, cathedrals of 
France should be included in this term. The 
French proverb known of all guide-book 
makers should give a clue as to those which at 
least may not be left out. 

" Clocher de Chartres, Nef d 'Amiens 
Choeur de Beauvais et Portale de Reims." 

Rouen, Paris, and Le Mans should be in- 
cluded, as well possibly as the smaller but no 
less convincing examples at Seez, Sens, Laon, 
and Troyes, as being of an analogous manner 
of building, and, by all that goes to make up 
the components of a really great church, 
Bourges might well be considered in the same 
group. For practical and divisional purposes 
it is perhaps well to compose an octette of the 
churches of the Isle of France and those lying 
contiguous thereto, Paris, Beauvais, St. Denis, 

61 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Amiens, Reims, Rouen, Chartres, and Le 
Mans, which may be taken together as repre- 
sentative of the greatest art expression of the 
Gothic builders, as well as being those around 
which centred the most significant events of 
Church and State. To attempt to catalogue 
even briefly the charms and notable attributes 
of even the first four, would require more than 
the compass of several volumes the size of the 
present, whereas the attempt made herein is 
merely to lead with as little digression as possi- 
ble up to the chief glories for which they are 
revered, and to suggest some of the many im- 
portant and epoch-making events intimately 
associated therewith. More would be impossi- 
ble, manifestly, unless the present work were 
to transcend the limitations which were origi- 
nally planned for it, hence it is with no halting 
assertion that we enter boldly upon that chro- 
nology or resume which, in a way, presents a 
marshalled array of correlated facts which the 
reader may care to follow in further detail in 
the list of bibliographical references included 
at the end of the volume. 

Certain facts relating to the history and the 
architectural features generally of these great 
cathedrals are known to all, and are chronicled 
with more or less completeness in many valua- 

62 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ble and authoritative works, ranging from the 
humble though necessary guide-book to the 
extensive if not exhaustive architectural work 
of reference. The facts given herein are such, 
then, as are often overlooked in the before- 
mentioned classes of works, and as such are 
presented, not so much with the avowed object 
of imparting information, as to remind the 
reader of the wealth of interest that exists with 
relation to these shrines of religious art. This 
seems to be the only preamble possible to the 
chapters which attempt to even classify these 
magnificent buildings, wherein much is at- 
tempted and so little accomplished in recount- 
ing their varied attractions. Let this explana- 
tion stand, therefore, for any seeming paucity 
of description which may exist. 




Le Bon Dieu (f Amiens 



^l 



II 

NOTRE DAME D'AMIENS 

The ever impressive Cathedral of Notre 
Dame d' Amiens is in most English minds the 
beau ideal of a French cathedral. It is con- 
temporary with Salisbury in period, at least, 
but it has little to remind one of the actual 
features of this edifice. Often associated 
therewith, as a similar type, it has little in 
reality in common, except that each is repre- 
sentative of a supreme style. Beyond this it is 
hard to see how any expert, archaeologist, 
antiquary, or what not, would seek to discover 
relationship between two such distinct types. 
Salisbury is the ideal English cathedral as to 
situation, surroundings, and general charm and 
grace. This no one would attempt to deny; 
but, in another environment, how different 
might it not appear, — as for instance placed 
beside Amiens, where in one particular alone, 
the mere height of nave and choir, it immedi- 
ately dwindles into insignificance. Under 

64 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

such conditions its graceful spire becomes 
dwarfed and attenuated. Need more be said? 
— The writer thinks not, since the present 
work does not deal with the comparative 
merits of any two cathedrals or of national 
types; but the suggestion should serve to dem- 
onstrate how impossible it is for any writer, 
however erudite he may be, to attempt to as- 
sign precedence, or even rank, among the 
really great architectural works of an era. 
This observation is true of many other ex- 
amples of art expression. 

The cathedral at Amiens is dedicated to the 
Virgin, and is built in the general form of a 
Latin cross. Over the principal doorway of 
the south portal, on one of the upper plinths, 
may be seen the inscription which places the 
date of the present edifice. 

f Cn Vm^ti r3ncarnati0 ualait x^t\ 
t\, XX. Ro.o.rg, ifu: ritnigt: U fxemiitt 

The work was undertaken by one Robert 
de Luzarche, in the episcopate of Evrard de 
Fouilloy, the forty-fifth Bishop of Amiens, 
whose tomb may be seen just within the west- 
ern doorway, and occupies the site of other 

65 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

structures which had been variously devastated 
by fire or invasion in 850, 1019, 1137, and 1218. 
For fifty years the work went on expeditiously 
under various bishops and their architects. 
" Saint " Louis, Blanche of Castille, Philippe 
the Hardy, and the city fathers all aided the 
work substantially, and the fabric speedily 
took on its finished form. Through the later 
centuries it still preserved its entity, and even 
during the Revolution its walls escaped de- 
struction and defilement through the devotion 
of its adherents. 

In later days important work and restora- 
tion has been carried out under the paternal 
care and at the expense of the state ; and the 
city itself only recently contributed 45,000 
francs for the clearing aw^ay of obstructing 
buildings. 

A French writer has said, '' It is only with 
the aid of a Bible and a history of theology 
that it is possible to elucidate the vast icono- 
graphic display of the marvellous west front 
of the cathedral at Amiens." Like Reims, its 
three portals of great size are peopled with a 
throng of statues. The central portal, known 
as the Porche du Souvenir, contains the statue 
of the Good God of Amiens ; that on the right 
is called after the Mere de Dieu, and that on 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the left for St. Fermin the Martyr. Above 
the gables is the " Gallery of Kings," just be- 
low the enormous rose windows. Above rise 
the two towers of unequal loftiness, and lack- 
ing, be it said, thickness in its due proportion. 
The carven figures in general are not con- 
sidered the equal in workmanship of those at 
Reims, though the effect and arrangement is 
similar. For a complete list of them, number- 
ing some hundreds on this fagade alone, the 
reader must refer to some local guide-book, of 
which several are issued in the city. 

The south portal, the Portal de la Vierge 
doree or Portal de Saint Honore, shares com- 
pany with the west fagade in its richness of 
sculpture and its rose window and its gable. 
Here also are to be seen the supporting but- 
tresses which spring laterally from the wall of 
the transept and cross with those which come 
from the choir. 

The north portal, on the side of the Bishop's 
Palace, does not show the same richness as 
the others, though perhaps more than ordi- 
narily ornate. 

The spire above the transept crossing is a 
work of the sixteenth century, and is perhaps 
more remarkable than its rather diminutive 



67 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

appearance, in contrast with the huge bulk of 
the edifice, would indicate. 

The extreme height of nave and choir (147 
feet), adds immeasurably to... the grand effect 
produced by the interior, a height in propor- 
tion to breadth nearly double that usual in the 
English cathedrals. The vaulting is borne 
aloft by over one hundred columns. The natu- 
ral attribute of such great dimension is a 
superb series of windows, a promise more than 
fulfilled by the three great rose windows and 
the lofty clerestory of nave and choir. The 
sixteenth century glass is exceedingly profuse 
and brilliant. 

The lateral chapels of the nave were added 
subsequent to the work of the early builders, 
all being of the sixteenth century, while the 
eleven choir chapels are of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, all with very ornate iron grilles, which 
are a feature only second to a remarkable 
series of " choir stalls," numbering over one 
hundred, showing a wonderful variety of 
delicate carved figures of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, the work of one Jean Turpin, the sub- 
jects being mainly Biblical. 

A stone screen with elaborate sculptures in 
high relief surrounds the choir, that on the 
south representing the legend of St. Firmin, 

68 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the patron of Picardy, and that on the north, 
scenes connected with the life of John the Bap- 
tist. In a side chapel dedicated to St. John 
reposes the alleged head of John the Baptist. 
Others have appeared elsewhere from time to 
time, but as they are not now recognized as 
being genuine, and the said apostle not being 
hydra-headed, it is possible that there will be 
those who will choose to throw the weight of 
their opinions in favour of the claim of 
Amiens. 

The flying buttresses at Amiens are not of 
the singular lightness associated with this nota- 
bly French characteristic; they are in the 
main, however, none the less effective for that, 
and assuredly, so far as the work which they 
have to perform is concerned, it was doubtless 
necessary that they should be of more than 
ordinary strength. 

The view of the ensemble from the river 
shows the massiveness and general proportions 
in a unique and superb manner. Amiens is 
not otherwise an attractive city, a bustle of 
grand and cheap hotels, decidedly a place to 
be taken en route, not like Beauvais, where one 
may well remain as long as fancy wills and 
not feel the too strong hand of progress intrud- 
ing upon his ruminations. 

69 



Ill 

ST. PIERRE DE BEAUVAIS 

Beauvais is by no means an inaccessible 
place, though how often have we known one 
who could not tell in what part of France it 
was situated. Of course, being '' off the line " 
is sufficient excuse for the majority of hurried 
travellers to pass it by, but, leaving this debat- 
able point out of the question, let us admit, for 
the nonce, that it is admirably located if one 
only chooses to spend a half-day or more in 
visiting the charmingly interesting city and 
its cathedral, or what there is of it, for it 
exists only as a luminous height sans nave, sans 
tower, and sans nearly everything, except a 
choir of such immensity that to see it is to 
marvel if not to admire. It is indeed as Hope 
has said, '' a miracle of loftiness and lightness; 
appearing as if about to soar into the air." 

How many readers, who recognize the 
charms for which the cathedral is most re- 
vered, know that it was intended to rank as the 

70 




^ 






The Cathedrals of Northern France 

St. Peter's of the north, and like its Roman pro- 
totype, was to surpass ail other contemporary 
structures in size and magnificence. This was 
marked out for it when, in the middle sixteenth 
century, the builders of its central spire, which 
fell shortly after, sought to rival the Italian 
church in a vast Gothic fabric which should be 
the dominant northern type in contradistinc- 
tion to that of the south. This of itself, were 
there no other contributory interests, which 
there are to a very great degree, should be all- 
sufficient to awaken the desire on the part of 
every one who journeys Parisward to obtain a 
more intimate acquaintance with this great 
work. Here was an instance of ambition 
overleaping itself, — exceeding by far the 
needs and conditions of its environment and 
like many another ill-planned venture, it fell 
to ruin through a lack of logic and mental 
balance. To-day we see a restored fabric, 
lacking all the attributes of a great church 
except that which is encompassed by that por- 
tion lying eastward of the nave proper, its frail 
buttresses knitted together by iron rods, its 
piers latterly doubled in number, and many 
more visible signs of an attempt to hold its 
walls and roofs up to the work they have to 
perform. 

71 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The present structure, in so far as certain 
of its components go, was commenced within 
five years of Amiens (1225), which calls to 
mind the guide-book comparison, which seems 
so appropriate that it must really have pre- 
viously originated from some other source, — 
Amiens, ''a giant in repose;" Beauvais, "a 
Colossus on tiptoe." 

Its designer built not wisely, nor in this 
case too well, for before the end of the cen- 
tury the roof had fallen, and this after re- 
peated miscalculations and failures. At this 
time the intermediate piers of the choir were 
built and a general modified plan adopted. 

Ruskin's favourite simile, with respect to 
St. Pierre de Beauvais, was that no Alpine 
precipice had the sheer fall of the walls of this 
choir, — or words to that effect, which is about 
as far-fetched as many other of his dictums, 
which have since been exploded by writers 
of every degree of optimism and pessimism. 
Certainly it is a great height to which this 
choir rises, one hundred and fifty-three feet 
it has been called, which probably exceeds 
that of Amiens by a dozen or more feet, 
though authorities {sic) vary with regard to 
these dimensions, as might be supposed; but 



72 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

it is no more like unto a wall of rock than it 
is to a lighthouse. 

With the crumbling of the sixteenth-century 
spire on Ascension Day, 1573, restoration of 
the transepts was undertaken and work on the 
nave resumed, which only proceeded, how- 
ever, to the extent of erecting one bay to the 
westward, which stands to this day, the open 
end filled in with scantling, weather proofing, 
and what not, — a bare, gaunt, ugly patch. 
Had it been possible to complete the work on 
its original magnificent lines, it would have 
been the most stupendous Gothic fabric the 
world has ever known. 

Not entirely without beauty, in spite of its 
great proportions, it is more with wonder than 
admiration that one views both its details and 
proportions. Though it is perhaps unfair to 
condemn its style as unworthy of the Augustan 
age of French architecture, surely the ambi- 
tion with which the work was undertaken was 
a laudable one enough, and it is only from 
the fact that it spells failure in the eyes of 
many who lack initiative in their own 
make-up, that it only qualifiedly may be called 
a great work. 

The choir, which now dates from 1322, per- 
force looks unduly short, by reason of the 

73 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

absence of a nave to add to the effect of hori- 
zontal stability; and the great height of the 
adjoining transept; but the chevet and but- 
tresses are certainly a marvel of grace and 
towering forms. 

The portals of the transept are of the period 
of Francis I., with flowing lines and ornate 
decorations — " having passed the severity 
and ethical standards of maturity, and pro- 
gressed well along the path to senility," as a 
vigorous Frenchman has put it. True enough 
in its application is this livid sentiment, — 
perhaps, — but its jewel-like south portal, like 
the ''gemmed'' west front of Tours, forms an 
attractive enough presentment to please most 
observers who do not delve too deeply into 
cause and effect. The north portal is less 
ornate, but its beautifully carved doors are 
by the same hand as that which worked the 
opposite portal. The ornamental stonework 
here is unusual, suggesting an arrangement 
which may or may not have been intended as 
a representation of the '' Tree of Jesse." In 
any case it is a remarkable work of flowing 
Gothic ''branches," which, though mainly 
lacking its intended interspersed figures, is not 
only unique among exterior decorations, but 



74 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

appears as a singularly appropriate treatment 
of a grand doorway. 

Adjoining the choir on the right is a sacristy 
occupying a small structure, and to the west- 
ward is a fragmentary edifice known as the 
Basse CEuvre^ — one of the oldest existing 
buildings in France; a Romano-Byzantine 
work, variously stated as of the sixth to eighth 
century and forming a portion of the original 
church which occupied the site of the present 
Cathedral. 

The general impressiveness of this great 
church — the memory which most of us will 
carry away — is caused by its immensity, its 
loftiness, and the general effect of lightness. 
These form an irresistible galaxy of features 
which can hardly fail to produce a new and 
startling sensation upon any observer. 

As to decorative embellishments, the church 
is by no means lacking. The coloured glass, 
typical of the best period of the art, is lux- 
urious and extensive ; that contained in the 
north and south transept rose windows being 
the exceedingly beautiful work of Le Prince, 
a celebrated sixteenth-century artist. 

Numerous side chapels surround the am- 
bulatory of the choir, and on the west wall 
of the transept are hung the eight tapestries 

75 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

after the sixteenth-century Raphael cartoons 
now at South Kensington. These tapestries 
are, it is to be presumed, late copies, since, of 
the two early sets woven at Arras, one is pre- 
served in the Vatican and the other at the 
Museum at Berlin. A modern fresco of 
Jeanne Hachette, a local Amazon, adorns one 
of the choir chapels. A modern astronomical 
clock, with numerous dials, striking figures, 
and crowing cocks, is placed near the north 
transept. It might naturally be supposed that 
in our day the canons of good taste would 
plead against such a mere " curio " being 
housed in a noble church. 

The former Bishop's Palace, dating from 
the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, is now 
the Palace of Justice. The present episcopal 
residence is immediately to the north of the 
Cathedral and is modern. 

As a tapestry-making centre Beauvais ranks 
with the famous Gobelin Manufactory at 
Paris. 



76 



v:x.^:^li> i,|jN>v 




IV 

NOTRE DAME DE ROUEN 

ROUEN^ of all the mediaeval cities of 
France, is ever to the fore in the memories of 
the mere traveller for pleasure. In no sense 
are its charms of a negative quality, or fev^ in 
number. Quite the reverse is the case; but 
the city's apparent attraction is its extreme 
accessibility, and the glamours that a metropo- 
lis of rank throws over itself; for it must not 
be denied that a countrified environment has 
not, for all, the appealing interest of a great 
city. It is to this, then, that Rouen must 
accredit the throngs of strangers which con- 
tinually flock to its doors from the Easter time 
to late autumn. In addition there are its three 
great churches, so conveniently and accessibly 
placed that the veriest tyro in travel can but 
come upon them whichever way he strolls. 
Other monuments of equal rank there are, too, 
and altogether, whether it be the mere hurried 
pecking of a bird of passage, or the more lei- 

79 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

surely attack of the studiously inclined, Rouen 
offers perhaps much greater attractions than 
are possessed by any other French city of equal 
rank. 

So closely, too, have certain events of Eng- 
lish history been interwoven with scenes and 
incidents which have taken place here, that 
the wonder is that it is not known even more 
intimately by that huge number of persons 
who annually rush across France to Switzer- 
land or Italy. 

Chroniclers of the city's history, its 
churches, and its institutions have not been 
wanting, in either French or English; and 
even the guide-books enlarge (not unduly) 
upon its varied charms. Once possessing 
thirty-two churches, sixteen yet remain ; quite 
one-half of which may be numbered to-day as 
of appealing interest. 'En passant, it may be 
stated that here at Rouen, in both Notre Dame 
and the Abbey Church of St. Ouen, is found 
that gorgeous functionary, commonly called 
" the Suisse," who seeks your gold or a portion 
thereof, in return for which he will favour 
you by opening an iron wicket into the choir, 
an incumbrance unnoticed elsewhere, except 
at Paris and St. Denis. 

The late Gothic church of St. Ouen, where 
80 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the Maid of Orleans received her fatal sen- 
tence, shows a wonderful unity of design even 
as to its modern western towers ; a consistency 
not equally the possession of the neighbouring 
cathedral, or even of most great churches. 
Altogether, this grand building is regarded 
as an unparallelled example of the realization 
of much that is best of Gothic architecture at 
its greatest height. In its central tower alone 
— which may or may not be suggestive of a 
market-basket, accordingly as you will take 
Ruskin's opinion, or form one of your own — 
is the least evidence of the developed flam- 
boyant found. Its interior is clean-cut and 
free of obstruction; the extreme length of its 
straight lines, both horizontal and perpen- 
dicular, entirely freed from chapel or choir 
screen, embrace and uphold its " walls of 
glass " in an unequalled manner. 

In strong contrast to this expressively grace- 
ful style is the ultraflorid type of St. Maclou, 
the other of that trinity of architectural splen- 
dours, which, with the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame, form the chief ecclesiastical monu- 
ments of the city. St. Maclou, which dates 
from the early fifteenth century, though not 
of the grand proportions of either of the other 
great churches, being rather of the type of the 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

large parish church as it is known in England, 
holds one spellbound by the very daring of its 
ornaments and tracery, but contains no trace 
of non-Gothic. The French passion for the 
curved line is nowhere more manifest than 
here (and in the west front of Notre Dame), 
where flowing tracery of window, doorway, 
portal, and, in general, all exterior ornament, 
is startling in its audacity. To view these two 
contrasting types before making acquaintance 
with the Cathedral of Notre Dame itself, is 
to prepare oneself for a consideration in some 
measure of a combination of the charms of 
both, woven into one fabric. Nowhere, at 
least in no provincial town of France, are to 
be found such a categorical display of ecclesi- 
astical architectural details as here. 

Rouen has from the second century been an 
important seat of Christianity. St. Nicaise, 
not to be confounded with him of the same 
name of Reims, first held a conversion here 
and was shortly followed by St. Mellor, who 
founded the city's first church, on the site of 
the present cathedral. In succeeding centuries 
this foundation gradually took shape and 
form until, with the occupation by the Norse- 
men under Rollo, was founded a dynasty 
which fostered the development of theology 

82 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

and the arts in a manner previously unknown. 
The cathedral was enlarged at this time, and 
upon his death in 930 RoUo was interred 
therein, as was also his son in 943. Richard 
the Fearless followed with further additions 
and enlargements, his son Richard being made 
its forty-third archbishop. From this time 
on, the great church-building era. Christian 
activities were notably at work, here as else- 
where, and during the prolific eleventh cen- 
tury great undertakings were in progress; so 
much so that what was practically a new 
church received its consecration, and dedica- 
tion to Our Lady, in 1063, in the presence of 
him who later was to be known as the Con- 
queror. To-day it stands summed up thus 
— a grand building, rich, confused, and un- 
equal in design and workmanship. 

The lower portion of the northwest tower, 
called the Tour St. Romain, is all that is left 
of the eleventh-century building, the remain- 
der of which was destroyed by fire in 1200. 
Rebuilding followed in succeeding years and 
shows work of many styles. Additions, re- 
pairs, and interpolations were incorporated 
with the fragment of the tower, so that the 
structure as we now know it stood complete 
with the early thirteenth century. Viollet-le- 

83 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Due is the authority for the statement that the 
apse and transept, chapels, choir, and two 
doorways of the west fagade were quite com- 
plete before the influence of the perfected 
Gothic of the Isle of France was even felt. 
One Enguerrand was the chief designer of the 
new church, assisted by Jean d'Andeli as 
master mason. The early century saw the 
nave chapels built, having been preceded by 
the Portail aux Libraires, a sort of cloistered 
north entrance, still so referred to, one of the 
most charming and quiet old-world retreats 
to be found to-day even within the hallowed 
precincts of a cathedral. The Portail de la 
Calende did not follow until a century later, 
when the Tour St. Romain was completed to 
its roof; at which time was also added the 
screen or arcade which separates the Portail 
aux Libraires from the street. 

This century, too, saw the beginning of the 
famous Tour de Beurre, built mostly by the 
contributions of those who paid for the indul- 
gence of being allowed to eat butter during 
Lent. Its foundation was laid in 1487 under 
Archbishop Robert de Croixmore, and it was 
completed under Cardinal d'Amboise in 1507. 
A chapel at the base of the tower is dedicated 
to St. Stephen. The ornate decorations of the 

84 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

west front, added by Georges d'Amboise, are 
mainly of the sixteenth century and form no 
part of the original plan or design. It borders 
upon the style we have since learned to decry, 
but it is, at least, marvellous as to the skill 
with which its foliaged and crocketed pinna- 
cles and elaborate traceries are worked. Rus- 
kin was probably right in this estimate at least, 
— " The central gable is the most exquisite 
piece of pure flamboyant style extant." At 
the present day this west front is undergoing 
such restoration and general repair that the 
entire gable, rose window, and part of the 
flanking towers are completely covered with 
a most hideous array of scaffolding. 

The central spire as it exists to-day, in 
reality an abomination of abominations, is 
naturally enough admired by all when first 
viewed from afar. It certainly looks not 
dwarfed, or even fragile, but simply delicate, 
and withal graceful, an opinion which ulti- 
mate association therewith speedily dispels. 
It must be one of the very first examples of 
modern iron or steel erection in the world, 
dating from 1827, following three former 
spires, each of which was burned. The archi- 
tect responsible for this monstrosity sought to 
combine two fabrics in incoherent propor- 

85 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

tions. More than one authority decries the 
use of iron as a constructive element, and 
Chaucer's description of the Temple of Mars 
in the Knight's Tale reads significantly: 

" Wrought all of burned steel . . . 

Was long and straight and ghastly for to see." 

The great part of the exterior of this re- 
markable church is closely hidden by a rather 
squalid collection of buildings. Here and 
there they have been cleared away, but, like 
much of the process of restoration, where new 
fabric is let into the old, the incongruity is 
quite as objectionably apparent as the crum- 
bling stones of another age. Notre Dame de 
Rouen is singularly confined, but there seems 
no help for it, and it is but another character- 
istic of the age in which it was built, — that 
the people either sought the shelter of 
churchly environment, or that the church was 
only too willing to stretch forth its sheltering 
arms to all and sundry who would lie in its 
shadow. 

In an assignment of ranking beauty to its 
external features, the decorative west front 
must manifestly come first; next the Portail 
aux Libraires, with its arcaded gateway and 
the remains of the booksellers' stalls which still 

86 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

surround its miniature courtyard; then, per- 
haps, should follow the Tour St. Romain and 
the Portail de la Calende, with its charmingly 
recessed doorway and flanking lancet arches. 
The sculptured decorations of all are for the 
most part intact and undisfigured. The gable 
of the southern doorway rises pointedly until 
its apex centres with the radiated circular 
window above, which, by the way, is not of 
the exceeding great beauty of the other two 
rose windows, which rank with those at Reims 
and Chartres as the beaux ideals of these dis- 
tinctly French achievements. 

The interior, viewed down the nave, and 
showing its great length and that of the choir, 
impresses one v/ith a graver sense of unity in 
the manner of building than is possible to con- 
ceive with regard to the exterior. The height 
and length both approximate that of St. Ouen, 
and, though the nave rises only to ninety-eight 
feet, an effect of greater loftiness is produced 
by the unusual quadripartite range of open- 
ings from pavement to vaulting: two rows 
of arches opening into the aisles before the tri- 
forium itself is reached. The lantern at the 
crossing supports the ironwork spire, and ad- 
mits light to the centre of the church, only 
to a small degree, however. The south 

87 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

transept, like that of the north, with its ample 
double aisles, is of great width, and, were the 
framing of the great rose window of less angu- 
larity, it would indeed produce a remarkable 
effect of grandeur. The other windows, and 
the arcading of the triforium, are singularly- 
graceful ; not lacking either strength or firm- 
ness, though having no glass of great rarity or 
excellence. In this transept is the altar of St. 
Romain, a seventeenth-century work of little 
pretensions. 

The north transept contains two features 
which give it immediate precedence over any 
other, when viewed from within: its grace- 
fully traceried rose window and fine glass, 
and the delightful stone staircase leading to 
the chapter library. Mere description can- 
not do this stairway justice. Renaissance it 
certainly is, and where we might wish to find 
nothing but Gothic ornament, it may prove 
somewhat of a disappointment; but it is mag- 
nificent. Its white marble balustrading 
gleams in the strong light thrown from the 
western transept window and gives an unmis- 
takable note of richness and sonority. It 
was built late in the fifteenth century under 
orders of Cardinal d'Estonteville. The upper 
doorway leads to the treasury, and that of 

88 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the first landing to the chamber in which were 
formerly kept the bibliographical treasures, 
now housed in the special building which 
forms the western wall of the outside court. 

The north and south aisles of the nave are 
broken into by a series of chapels, the chief 
of which are the Chapel to St. Stephen in the 
base of the Tour de Buerre and du Petit St. 
Romain, where an abbe or cure speaking the 
English tongue is often to be found. On the 
south side is a chapel containing the tomb of 
William Longsword, second Duke of Nor- 
mandy, and son of Rollo. 

The great attraction of the choir, far more 
than its beauties of architectural forms, shown 
in its graceful columns and deep graven capi- 
tals, will be, for most visitors, its array of elab- 
orate monuments, including those of Pierre 
and Louis de Breze, of whom the former, the 
Grand Seneschal of Normandy under Charles 
VII., fell at Monthery, and was buried here 
in 1465. More pretentious is the tomb of 
Louis, his grandson, erected by his wife Diane 
de Poitiers, with a significant inscription 
which the curious may be pleased to figure out 
for themselves. This noble monument is one 
of those examples hesitatingly attributed to 
Jean Goujon. The piece de resistance is the 

89 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Renaissance tomb of the Cardinals d'Amboise. 
Georges I. was memorialized in 1556 by his 
nephew Georges II., who in turn came to 
share the same tomb. Both their kneeling 
figures are beautifully chiselled, and the whole 
erection is gorgeously representative of the late 
sixteenth-century monumental work, little in 
keeping with the Gothic fabric which houses 
it, but characteristic of the changing thought 
and influence of its time. Six symbolical 
figures of the virtues form a lower course, 
while the canopy is surmounted by nineteen 
figures of apostles, saints, etc. In 1793 the 
ashes of these great prelates were scattered 
to the winds, but the effigies and their setting 
fortunately remained uninjured. Other arch- 
bishops of the cathedral are buried in the 
choir, and the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion 
once rested here, as did also the bodies of his 
brother Henry, and John, Duke of Bedford. 
The choir stalls, mostly the work of Flemish 
wood-carvers, are notable examples. 




90 




Basilique de St. Denis 






BASILIQUE DE ST. DENIS 

The Basilica of St. Denis, so-called to-day, 
built over the remains of the martyred St. 
Denis, is in a way the counterpart of the 
Cathedral of Reims, in that it also is inti- 
mately associated with the Kings of France. 
In the former they were, almost without ex- 
ception, crowned; and here, at St. Denis, are 
the memorials of their greatness, and in many 
cases their actual tombs. Thus far and no 
farther may the similarity be said to exist. 
The old Abbey of St. Denis has little in com- 
mon, architecturally, with the grand Cathe- 
dral of Notre Dame de Reims. Of the two, 
St. Denis is much the older foundation, and 
from the point of view of romance and senti- 
ment holds perhaps the premier place, as well. 

The history of the city is one of the most 
interesting and diversified of all in the domain 
of the Kings of France. A Benedictine abbey 
was founded here in the reign of Dagobert I., 



93 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

and, under the Carlovingian dynasty, imme- 
diately took on political as well as devout sig- 
nificance. The Abbot of St. Denis journeyed 
to Rome in 751 A. D., and secured for Pepin 
the papal confirmation of his kingship. Pope 
Stephen took refuge here from the Lombards 
in 754 A. D., during which time he anointed 
the king's sons, Charles and Charlemagne; 
upon the consecration of which act Pepin 
handed over to his sons the right and title to 
his dominions. 

Upon the advice of the Abbot Suger, 
Louis VI. adopted the Oriflamme, or standard 
of St. Denis, as the banner of the Kings of 
France, and, for long after, its red and gold 
colourings hung above the altar, — only to 
be removed when the king should take the 
field in person. 

Abelard, of famed romance, was a monk of 
the abbey in the twelfth century; and, in the 
absence of the sovereign (Louis VII.) in the 
Holy Land during the mid-century, the Abbe 
Suger administered full well the affairs of 
the kingdom. This renowned abbot and true 
lover of art died in 1151 at St. Denis. 

In 1429 " the Maid of Orleans " here de- 
livered up her arms; and a century and a half 
later that sturdy Protestant, Henry, abjured 

94 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the faith to which he had hitherto so tena- 
ciously clung. In this church, too, the great 
Napoleon married Marie Louise in 1810; and 
his later namesake, some fifty years after, 
erected a mausoleum in the crypt, known as 
the Caveau Imperial, the burial vault of his 
dynasty, which, however, has never been so 
used. 

Such in brief is the record of some of th^ 
more important affairs of church and state, 
which are identified with this fine old cathe- 
dral. The usual books of reference give 
lengthy lists of the various tombs and monu- 
ments which exist. It is a pity, however, that, 
in spite of the laudable ambition of preserv- 
ing here, in a sort of kingly Valhalla, the 
memory of the rulers of a past age, it has 
degenerated, in turn, to a mere show-place, 
with little enough of the real sentiment re- 
maining to satisfy the seriously inclined, who 
perforce would wish to be reminded in some 
more subtle way than by a mere " rush around 
the exhibits," which is about all the half- 
hourly, personally conducted excursions, with 
appropriate fees to be delivered up here and 
there, amounts to. But for this, there would 
still be some of the charm and reverence which 
such a noble memorial should inspire, in spite 

95 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

of the fact that revolution and desecration have 
played more than a usual share in the general 
derangement of the original plans. 

Up to the time of Henry IV. the monarchs 
were mostly interred in separate tombs, but, 
following him, his immediate successors were 
buried in a common vault. During the Revo- 
lution, the Convention decreed that the royal 
tombs should be destroyed, and so they mostly 
were, — the bodies dug up and interred, if so 
the process can be called, in a common grave. 
In 1817 Louis XVIII. caused the remains of 
his ancestors, as well as Louis XVI. and Marie 
Antoinette, to be transferred here from the 
Madeleine, and in turn he himself was buried 
here, as well as the Due de Berry and several 
of his children. The preservation of such of 
the tombs as survived the many vicissitudes 
to which they were put, is due to the fact that 
many of them were at one time removed to the 
Musee des Petits-Augustines, now the Palace 
des Beaux Arts, at Paris; but in 18 17 Louis 
XVIII. ordered them to be replaced in the 
crypt of St. Denis; not, however, on the sites 
which they formerly occupied, but in an arbi- 
trary manner which only the great abilities of 
M. Viollet-le-Duc, who undertook their re- 
arrangement and restoration, were able to pre- 

96 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

sent in some coherent manner for the marvel 
of future generations. There are now therein 
over fifty monuments and tombs, besides vari- 
ous statues, medallions, and other memorials. 
From an architectural point of view, we 
have to consider the Basilique de St. Denis no 
longer a cathedral, as one of the earliest 
Gothic examples in France, though at first 
glance little enough of the true Gothic feel- 
ing is apparent. About the year 275 a chapel 
was built here above the grave of St. Dio- 
nysius, the first Bishop of Paris. This was fol- 
lowed by a large basilica, ultimately given 
over to the uses of monks of the Benedictine 
order. Evidences of this former construction 
are supposed by archaeologists to still remain, 
but little, earlier than the structure of the 
Abbe Suger, meets the eye to-day. Strong is 
the trace of the development from the 
Romanesque fagade, completed in 1140, to 
pure Gothic construction of a century later. 
In this church is commonly supposed to be 
exhibited for the first time, bearing in mind 
that the date of its consecration was 1144, a 
complete system of buttresses accompanying 
the pointed arch of the vaulting, though in 
conjunction with semicircular vaulting in the 
choir aisles. 

97 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The west facade is the most notable part of 
Soger's building. It contains three deeply 
recessed round arched portals, decorated with 
sculpture, but so disfigured, or at least mod- 
ified from their original forms in an attempt 
to replace the ravages of time and spolia- 
tion, that one can not well judge of their origi- 
nal merit. The south portal shows symbolical 
figures of the months and of '' St. Dionysius 
in Prison ; " the central doorway a " Last 
Judgment," and the " Wise and Foolish 
Virgins; " while the north portal depicts ^' St. 
Dionysius on His Way to Martyrdom," and 
'' The Signs of the Zodiac." 

A curious and unusual effect of the upper 
portion of this grim fagade, like a similar work 
at Dol-de-Bretagne, is a range of battlements 
which were erected for defensive purposes 
in the fourteenth century. The nave rises high 
above this, surmounted by a statue of St. Denis. 
Above the lateral portals of the fagade are 
two towers, that on the right rising two stages 
above the embattled crest, while that on the 
left stops at that level. The spire with which 
it was formerly surmounted was ruined by 
lightning early in the nineteenth century. 

The choir, with its radiating chapels, is of 
a Romanesque order, with the Gothic at- 

98 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

tribute of the flying buttress in a high degree 
of development. 

A general restoration was carried out in the 
thirteenth century by the successors of Suger, 
the Abbes Eudes Clement and Matthieu de 
Vendome, in the best Gothic of the time ; and 
it is to their excellently planned work that the 
general fine effect of the present interior ar- 
rangements may properly enough be accred- 
ited, though for a fact it seldom is so. A later 
restoration, the removing of the ruin wrought 
by the Revolution, did not succeed so well. It 
was not until the really great work of VioUet- 
le-Duc, under Napoleon III., that this grand 
building finally took on again an acceptable 
form. 

The general interior arrangements, though 
to-day apparently subservient to the common 
attributes of a show-house with its innumer- 
able guides, functionaries, and fees, are simple 
and impressive so far as structural elements 
are concerned. As for decorations, they are 
mostly to be found in that gorgeous array of 
monuments and tombs before mentioned. 
The entrance proper, or vestibule, is of 
Suger's era and is gloomy and dull, in strong 
contrast with the noble and impressive nave, 
which contains thirty-seven enormously high 

99 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

windows and a handsome triforium gallery. 
This portion dates from the thirteenth cen- 
tury, or immediately following Suger's re- 
gime. The excellent stained glass is modern. 
The transepts are mere rudimentary elements, 
suggested only by the interior arrangement 
of the piers, and are simple and impressive. 




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VTOTRE DAME 




i>l de PARIS . . 



NOTRE DAME DE PARIS 

Of all the cathedrals of France, Notre 
Dame de Paris is most firmly impressed on the 
minds of English speaking people. At least, 
it is more familiarly known by all who visit 
that delectable land, and perhaps rightly so. 
Poets have sung its praises, and writers of all 
ranks have used it in well-nigh every possible 
fashion as an accessory; indeed, books almost 
without number have been written about it, 
and around it. This is as it should be, for 
perhaps no great church is more worthy, or 
more prolific in material. For those who 
would probe deeply into its story, there is but 
one way to acquire an intimate knowledge 
thereof, — to undertake a course of reading 
and study in some such way as a lawyer sets 
about reading up on a great case. By no other 
method could be acquired a tithe of the com- 
monly known facts regarding its past history; 
hence the impossibility of attempting to deal 

lOI 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

fully in a few pages with this great church, 
even in a perfunctory manner. The most that 
can be safely ventured upon, is to recount some 
of the facts. 

How many have really noticed that none of 
the diagrams, which show the ground-plan of 
this cathedral, indicate the existence of any 
transepts? Take, for instance, that which ac- 
companies this volume, which, it may be said, 
is drawn correctly, — beyond the omission of 
a couple of pillars on either side of the nave, 
there is nothing to break into the long paral- 
lelogram-like structure, with an apsidal ter- 
mination. As a matter of fact, there are a 
pair of very beautiful transepts, as most pho- 
tographs of the exterior, and drawings of the 
interior, show. They are, too, in no way at- 
tenuated, and are only lost in the ground-plan 
by reason of the fact that they follow the very 
unusual arrangement of not extending later- 
ally beyond the ample width of the nave and 
its chapelled aisles. The south transept fagade, 
with the portal dedicated to St. Stephen, and 
two magnificent rose windows, is unquestion- 
ably more pleasing than the west fagade itself 
as to design and arrangement. 

Begun in 1163 ^^d consecrated in 1182, the 
church has undergone many vicissitudes, 

102 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

changes, and restorations. It has fared ill on 
many occasions; perhaps the greatest defile- 
ment being that which befell it during the 
Revolution, when it was not only foully dese- 
crated, its statues and other imagery despoiled, 
but the edifice was actually doomed to destruc- 
tion. This fortunately was spared to it, but 
in the same year ( 1793) it became a '' Temple 
of Reason," one of those fanatical exploits of 
a set of madmen who are periodically let 
loose upon the world. Mysticism, palaver- 
ings, and orgies unspeakable took place be- 
tween its walls, and it only became sanctified 
again when Napoleon caused it to be reopened 
as a place of divine worship. Again, three- 
quarters of a century later, it fell into evil 
times — when it was turned into a military 
rendezvous by the Communards of '71. In 
turn, they too retreated, leaving the church, 
as they supposed, to the mercy of the flames 
which they had kindled. Fortunately these 
were extinguished and the building again res- 
cued from an untoward fate. 

The thirteenth-century fagade is usually ac- 
credited the finest part of the church. It 
comes upon one as rather plain and bare after 
the luxuriance of Amiens, Reims, or Rouen. 
As a model and design, however, it has served 

103 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

its purpose well, if other examples, variously 
distributed throughout England and France, 
are considered. Its lines, in fact, are superb 
and vary little in proportion or extent from 
what must perforce be accepted as ideal. Its 
portals are of good design, and so also is such 
sculpture as survived the ravages of the past, 
though the outlines of the doorways are se- 
verely plain. A series of modern sculptured 
effigies of the kings, replacing those destroyed 
at the Revolution, forms a plain horizontal 
band across the entire front; a none too grace- 
ful or pleasing arrangement of itself. A rose 
window forty-two feet in width occupies the 
centre of the next stage, flanked by two blunt- 
pointed windows rather bare of glass. Above 
is an arcaded gallery of small pointed arches 
in pairs, also extending across the entire front. 
The balustrade, above, holds a number of gro- 
tesque creatures carved in stone. They may 
be gargoyles, but are not, however, in this case, 
of the spout variety, being some of those erec- 
tions of a superstitious age which were so fre- 
quently added to a mediaeval building; though 
whether as a mere decoration, or with greater 
significance, authorities do not seem to agree. 
The two uncompleted square towers overtop 
all, pierced by the two great lancets, which, 

104 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

with respect to mere proportions, are unusual 
if not unique. 

The spire above the crossing is a wooden 
structure covered with lead, and dates only 
from the middle of the nineteenth century. 
Both the north and south transepts contain 
magnificent rose windows of even larger di- 
mensions than that of the west fagade. The 
doorway of the south transept is ornamented 
with efTective ironwork, but otherwise the 
exterior presents no remarkable features. 

To the artist's eye the gem of the building 
is undoubtedly the fine grouping and ensemble 
of the flying buttresses at the rear of the choir. 
Most persons, so gifted, have tried their pren- 
tice, or their master, hands at depicting this 
grand marshalled array of '' folded wings," 
and, but for the gruesome morgue at its foot, 
which ever intrudes into the view, one might 
almost say it is the most idyllic and most 
specious view of a great cathedral that it were 
possible to have. Were it not for this charm- 
ing view of these buttressed walls, with the 
river flowing at their feet, the Isle de la Cite 
would be indeed a gloomy spot, with its lurid 
historical past, and its present gruesome asso- 
ciation with the " house of the dead." Indeed, 
it has been questioned as to whether the choir 

I05 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

and chevet of Notre Dame de Paris is not 
the most beautiful extant. The Isle de la Cite 
was the ancient island village of the Parisii. 

A sixteenth-century Dutch writer (De Sau- 
teuil) has delivered himself of these few lines 
concerning the Seine at this point: 

" When first it enters the metropolis it am- 
bitiously stays its rapid course, and, being 
truly enamoured with the place, forgets its 
way, is uncertain whither to flow, and winds in 
sweet meanders through the town; thence fill- 
ing the pipes with its waters. That which was 
once a river, joys to become a fountain." 

To carry the suggestion of contrast still 
farther one should read Hugo's " Notre 
Dame " on the spot. It will give a wonderful 
and whimsical conception of those weird gar- 
goyles and devils, which have only to be seen 
to awaken a new interest in what this great 
writer has put forth. For another sensation, 
pleasant or otherwise, one might look up a 
copy of Meyron's wonderful etching of the 
same subject, or refer to a most excellent 
monograph, written not many years since, en- 
titled "The Devils of Notre Dame." The 
interior shows the earliest example wherein 
the double aisles of the nave are continued 
around the choir, and the first introduction of 

1 06 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the quadruple range of openings from the 
pavement to the vaulting. The aisles and nave 
are of almost equal height. 

The choir, besides being merely apsided, is, 
in fact, a true semicircle, a sufficiently unusual 
arrangement in an early Gothic church to be 
remarked; and, in addition, is exceedingly 
narrow and lofty. The glass of the rose win- 
dows is of old and gorgeous quality, it having 
escaped destruction in Revolutionary times, 
whereas that of the lower range of windows 
was mostly destroyed. 

The choir stalls are of excellent wooden 
carving, but the high altar is modern, dat- 
ing only from 1874. The choir screen, of the 
fourteenth century, shows twenty-three reliefs 
in stone, once richly gilded, but now tarnished 
and dull. 




Notre Dame de Paris from the River 
107 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ST. LOUIS DE VERSAILLES 

Allied with the see whose jurisdiction in- 
cludes the Diocese of the Department of the 
Seine, should be considered that of Seine and 
Oise, which has its bishop's throne esconced 
in the Cathedral of St. Louis at Versailles. 
To all intents and purposes the town is one of 
those conglomerate units which go to make 
up the " traveller's Paris." More can hardly 
be said with due regard to the magnificent 
edifices with which this cathedral must natu- 
rally be classed. The other attractions of this 
" court suburb " are so appealing to the senti- 
mentally inclined that it is to be feared 
that such will have little eye for the very 
minor attractions of the cathedral. The 
Trianons, the " Grandes Eaux " and the 
" Petites Eaux " are all in all to the visitor 
to Versailles. 

As a matter of fact and record, the Cathe- 
dral of St. Louis must be mentioned, if only to 
be dismissed in a word. Bourasee refers to it 
as " a thing cold, unfeeling, and without life." 
Truthfully, it is a remarkably ugly building 
of the middle eighteenth century, with no de- 
tails of note and no memorials worthy of even 
a passing regard, except a monument to the 

io8 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Due de Berry, who died in 1820. What embel- 
lishment is given to the interior, is accounted 
for by the exceeding ruddy glow shed by the 
contemporary coloured glass of the none too 
numerous windows. 



109 



VII 

ST. julien; le mans 

Le ManS^ like Chartres, sprang from an 
ancient Celtic hill fort, and, through success- 
ive stages, has since grown to a Roman, a 
mediaeval, and finally a modern city. It 
crowns the top of a very considerable emi- 
nence, the like of which, says Professor Free- 
man, does not exist in England. Like Char- 
tres, too, it has always retained the balance of 
power which has made it the local civil and 
ecclesiastical capital of its province. It is, 
too, more closely associated in English minds 
than is Chartres, forming as it did a part of 
the dominion of a common sovereign; also 
by reason of being the birthplace of Henry 
II., and the burial-place of Queen Berengaria, 
the wife of Richard Cceur-de-Lion. 

Le Mans stands, without doubt, in advance 
of Chartres in the importance and number of 
its secondary churches, as well as its ecclesi- 
astical, civil, and military establishments in 

113 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

general. In spite of all this, the city has never 
ranked as of supreme importance as a Euro- 
pean city; nor did it ever attain the rank in 
Gallic times, that the events which have been 
woven around it would seem to augur. To- 
day it is a truly characteristic, large, provin- 
cial town of little or no importance to the out- 
side world. Self-sufficient as to its own impor- 
tance, and the events around which its local 
life circles, it gives little indication of ever be- 
coming more of a metropolis than it now is; 
indeed the census figures would indicate that 
the department, of which it is the capital, has 
remained stationary as to the numbers of its 
population, since the Revolution. 

Writers have endeavoured to carry the simi- 
larity to English interests and conditions still 
farther than the events of history really go to 
prove, and have declared that Maine and 
England should have united in repelling their 
common invader. Endeavour has also been 
made to trace similarity between the commu- 
nistic principles of days gone by, which took 
form here and at Exeter across the Channel, 
and have even remarked the similarity of the 
topographical features of the surrounding 
landscape, wherein the country round about 
differs so from other parts of France, being 

114 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

here rolling, hilly, and wooded, as in certain 
parts of England ; and even stretching a point 
to include the hedgerows, which, it must be 
admitted, are more in evidence in Maine than 
elsewhere in France. But these observations 
apparently prove nothing except that the 
majority of persons probably know very little 
of the real conditions which exist in the prov- 
inces of France, preferring rather that their 
journeyings afield should follow more the 
well-worn road of their compatriots. 

The Cathedral of St. Julien well represents 
the two distinct epochs in which church archi- 
tecture, as it remains to us to-day, was prac- 
tised here, and shows, to well-nigh the fullest 
expression possible, the two principal trans- 
formations of Christian architecture. 

As the Angevin style partakes so closely of 
northern and southern types intermixed, so the 
distinctive architectures of Maine, if such 
there be, may be said to favour the styles of 
both Normandy and Anjou; at least so far as 
the cathedral at Le Mans shows a combination 
of Angevin and Norman detail. The really 
distinctive southern influence is to be noted in 
the Romano-Byzantine nave, the exterior of 
which, so far as the western front is concerned, 
is far more notable in the rigidness and aus- 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

terity of its lines, than by any richness of 
ornamentation or decoration. Nothing could 
be more simply plain than this portal, and the 
wall and gable which surmount it. A large 
bare window, of the variety of that at Angers, 
stands above the doorway, which, itself, lacks 
all attempt at embellishment. What decora- 
tion the fagade bears is after the true Byzan- 
tine manner, of the nature of brickwork dis- 
played and set into the wall in geometrically 
angular fashion. What sculpture there is, two 
grotesque animals on either of the buttresses 
which flank the fagade, is of minor account. 
This, then, is the extent of the detail of this 
severe western facade, the grand portal of the 
usually accepted great church being entirely 
lacking and evidently not thought of as a 
desirable detail when this portion of the struc- 
ture was erected. It has nothing of the pro- 
digious art expression of the frontispieces of 
the grand Gothic churches of the north, or of 
the less poverty-stricken Byzantine decoration 
of its own Meridional portal, which, in so far 
as the style can be said to take on richness of 
form, shows the transition tendencies of the 
early twelfth century. This doorway is sur- 
mounted by a tympanum, ornamented by a 
figure of the Saviour surrounded by the four 

ii6 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Evangelists, a subject which has always proved 
itself a highly successful and popular ecclesi- 
astical symbol, and one which in this case, as 
in most others, is well made use of. All the 
figures have suffered considerably from the 
ravages of time, but retain much of their inter- 
est and charm in spite of such mutilation. A 
tower of Romanesque foundation, but of fif- 
teenth and sixteenth century completion, flanks 
this south transept. 

The ranking portion of this interesting 
church is its choir, larger in superficial area 
than the entire cathedrals of Noyon or Sois- 
sons. Both from inside and out, it is all that 
one's imagination could possibly invent Its 
great proportions are as harmonious and grace- 
ful as the lines of a willow-tree ; in fact, as to 
general effect, it may be set down as a thing 
of extraordinary grandeur, worthy to rank 
with Beauvais or Amiens, and yet different 
from either, of a quality its very own. At the 
commencement of the thirteenth century the 
canons obtained, from Philip Augustus, per- 
mission to extend their church beyond the city 
walls in an easterly direction, and then it was 
that this wonderful choir took shape. The 
work was undertaken in 12 17 and was com- 
pleted soon after the middle of the same cen- 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

tury, and the body of St. Julien, the first 
apostle to Le Mans, for whom the church was 
named, was placed therein by Geoffroy de 
Loudon, then bishop, who decorated the win- 
dows of the choir with the magnificent glass 
with which they are still set. 

From a certain distance to the eastward the 
cathedral at Le Mans presents a view of the 
choir, unique in all the world. Other greater 
ones there are, if mere height be concerned, 
and others with more perfect appendages ; but 
none give the far-spreading efifect of encircling 
chapels, or are possessed of high springing 
buttresses of more grace or beauty than are 
seen here. He was a rash man who ranked 
the flying buttresses as a sign of defective 
construction, indicating structural weakness, 
meaningless and undecorative ornament, and 
what not. Few have agreed with this dictum, 
and few ever will after they have seen Paris, 
Beauvais, and Le Mans. 

The interior is one of great interest; the 
nave, even in its early forms, is none the less 
attractive because of its austerity. It is, as a 
matter of fact, far more interesting here than 
in its exterior, the swarthy circular pillars 
holding aloft arches with just a suspicion of 
the ogival style, with narrow, low, and dispro- 

1x8 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

portionately small windows in the aisles, 
where are also a series of strengthening 
pillars of black and white stone, presenting 
again a reminiscence of the southern manner, 
or at least recalling the slate and stone of 
Angers. In the choir, with its girdling 
chapels and double ambulatory, we come upon 
the most impressive portion of all. Slightly 
orientated from the east and west, it presents 
by itself, like Beauvais, nearly all of the at- 
tributes of a great church. The columns, 
arcades, and windows throughout are all of 
an unusual elegance and grace, the vaulting 
rising with much daring to a remarkable 
height, which must approach one hundred and 
ten or more feet, and the equal of certain other 
" popularly notable " buildings. 

The rose window of the south of the tran- 
sept is a remarkable example of these master- 
pieces of the French builder. The framing 
and the glass with which it is set is of the 
richest quality, though it dates only from the 
fifteenth century. The organ case is here 
found in the south transept, an unusual ar- 
rangement in a French church, where it is 
usually placed over the western doorway. The 
vaulting, too, is much loftier here than in the 
nave. The aisles of this remarkable choir 

119 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

have the further unusual attribute of three 
ranges of openings, while the clerestory, only, 
rises above, but with great and imposing 
beauty. There are a few funeral monuments 
of more than ordinary interest, including that 
of Queen Berengaria, wife of Richard, the 
Lion-Hearted, brought from the Abbey de 
TEpau in 1821; a sarcophagus and statue in 
white marble of Charles of Anjou, Count of 
Maine, King of Jerusalem and Sicily (d. 
1472), and the mausoleum of Langey du Bel- 
lay. In the north aisle are a number of fif- 
teenth or sixteenth century tapestries. The 
former bishop's palace was burned by the 
Germans in 1871. 



120 




Notre Dame de Chartres, 



VIII 

NOTRE DAME DE CHARTRES 

Aside from their wonderful, though non- 
similar, cathedrals, Chartres and Le Mans, its 
neighbour, have much in common. Both have 
been possessed of a brilliant array of counts 
and prelates, both grew from a Celtic village 
to their present grand proportions through a 
series of vicissitudes, wars, and conquests, 
until to-day each is preeminent within its own 
sphere, and has become not only a centre of 
ecclesiastical affairs, but of civil life as well. 

The Counts of Chartres and of Blois, in the 
middle ages, were a powerful race of men, 
and should ever be associated with profound 
respect in English minds by the fact that here 
was the birthplace of Adela, the mother of 
King Stephen of Blois, and of Henry, Bishop 
of Winchester. 

As for local conditions to-day, Chartres, 
while having grown to the state which it now 
occupies through events which have made it 

123 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

a city of mark, remains a somnolescent^ 
sparsely built town, with little suggestion of 
the progress of modernity. More frequently 
mentioned in the note-books of the traveller 
than Le Mans, it offers perhaps no greater 
charms. To be sure, its cathedral, by reason 
of its open situation and the charming quality 
and effect produced by its spires and its one 
hundred and thirty windows of coloured glass, 
at once places it at the very head amongst the 
great " show pieces " of France ; but it is in 
connection with Le Mans, scarcely eighty 
miles away and so little known, that it ought 
really to be studied and considered; which as 
a matter of fact it seldom is. The city is 
hardly in keeping with what we are wont 
to associate with the environment of a great 
cathedral, though this of itself in no way de- 
tracts from its charms. The weekly cattle- 
market takes place almost before its very 
doors, and the battery of hotels which flank 
the open square present the air of catering 
more to the need of the husbandman than to 
the tourist; — not a wholly objectionable fea- 
ture, either. 

Beyond such evidences as an occasional 
sign-board announcing the fact that the hos- 
telry possesses a garage, fosse, or what not for 

124 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the necessitous requirements of the automo- 
bilist, the inns remain much as they always 
were, mere bourgeoise caravansaries. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Char- 
tres jumps full into view immediately on leav- 
ing the railway station, though here it is to 
be noted that no delineation has ever been 
made by modern hand which shows its fagade 
in its entirety. The roofs of the houses and 
shops around its base indicate no special 
squalor or poverty, as is the case with regard 
to some Continental churches, and there is a 
picturesque grouping of firs and poplars to the 
left which adds considerably to an already 
pleasing prospect. The whole grouping is, 
perhaps, none the less attractive than if the 
fagade, with those extraordinarily beautiful 
non-contemporary spires, stood quite unob- 
structed. In fact, it is doubtful if many a 
monumental shrine might not lose considera- 
bly, were it taken from its environment and 
placed in another which might not suit its 
graces so well. 

These really fascinating spires, famed of all 
writers, archaeologists, and painters alike, are 
the clef by which the whole harmony is 
sounded. One cannot but echo, and reecho, 
all that has been said of them, though in a 

125 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

quandary as to which of the two is the more 
beautiful: the plain, simple, symmetrical, 
older spire, or that wonderful work of Tex- 
ier's, replacing another burned in 1506, which 
rises in gently sculptured and tapered ranges 
to a height which exceeds its companion by 
some twenty-five feet. No more appropriate 
or convincing wording could be given of it 
than by quoting Fergusson's estimate, which 
sums it up as being '^ the most beautifully de- 
signed spire in Europe, surpassing even Stras- 
burg and Antwerp." 

It is rather a pity that from no suitably 
near-by point can one obtain a full view of 
the effect of the western fagade. One poor 
little house seems ever to thrust itself into the 
ensemble, though it is to-day apparent that 
certain others, which must have cut into the 
front still more, have been cleared away. 
Clearly, with all its charm and beauty of de- 
tail, it is for its great and general excellencies 
that the cathedral at Chartres most impresses 
itself upon the memory. 

Visitors to-day will have no easy task in 
locating Lowell's '' little pea-green inn," in 
which he indited the lines, '^ A Day in Char- 
tres;" as appreciative and graceful an esti- 



126 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

mate of an inanimate thing as ever was made 
in verse: 

*«The Grecian gluts me with its perfectness 
Unanswerable as Euclid, self-contained. 
The one thing finished in this hasty world. 
But ah ! this other, this that never ends. 
Still climbing, luring fancy still to climb. 
As full of morals, half divined, as life. 
Graceful, grotesque, with ever new surprise 
Of hazardous caprices, sure to please. 
Heavy as nightmare, airy light as fern. 
Imagination's very self in stone." 

Among the other attractions of the west 
fagade is the Porte Royale, so called, the cen- 
tral doorway which was only opened for the 
entrance of the sovereign. It is decorated 
with the '' signs of the zodiac " and '' sym- 
bols of the months." Next in point of rich- 
ness are the grandly efifective north and south 
porches, with their triple doorways or portals, 
setting back some twenty feet from their jambs, 
which, as at Noyon, and in the smaller church 
at Louviers, are pierced with a transverse pas- 
sage. 

The north porch, with its range of three 
open-sided and deeply recessed doorways, has 
unmistakably debased tendencies, but is filled 
with sculptured statuary of more than ordi- 

127 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

narily effective disposition, more remarkable 
for magnitude and ornateness than for finesse 
of skill and workmanship, or even as a detail 
of good taste. 

The life-size statues of all three recesses are 
held aloft by pedestals, on pillars of twisted 
and of spiralled trunks, a formation reviled 
by Ruskin, but producing an effect much more 
pleasing than some galleries of effigies we have 
seen, where the figures appear as if hung up 
by the hair of their heads, or are clinging to 
the walls by invisible spurs at their heels, or, 
as is not infrequently the case, are standing or 
hung on nothing, as though they were graven 
of some bewitched magnetic stone. Here for 
the first time is seen, in the sculptured figures 
of the three great portals, the plastic forms 
which were to add so greatly to the Gothic 
architecture: male and female saints. Evan- 
gelists, and Apostles in great array, all some- 
what more than life-size. Only one adverse 
impression is cast: that of petrifaction. The 
figures, almost without exception, appear as 
integral parts of the architectural fabric, 
rather than as added ornament. They are 
most ungainly, tall, stiff, and column-like, 
much more so than similar works at Reims, 



128 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

or at Amiens, where the sculpture has some- 
thing of the vigour and warmth of life. 

The south porch, erected in the reign of 
Henry I. by Jean Cormier, partly from dona- 
tions of Matilda, queen of the Norman Con- 
queror, contains a series of hasso relievos, — 
seen also in the arches of the choir, — mani- 
festly not of good Gothic principle, and one 
which is the very antithesis of the northern 
spirit, as the name itself implies. 

The earliest portion of the existing church, 
the crypt, is that of a timber-roofed structure 
burned in 1020. It was erected early in the 
eleventh century by Fulbert, the famous 
Bishop of Chartres, also remembered — possi- 
bly revered — as being the prolific letter- 
writer of his time. 

John of Salisbury was bishop in the next 
century, and under him were built the lower 
stages of the western fagade and towers. In 
this church Edward III. called for the help 
of Heaven to aid his plans, and here Henry 
of Navarre was crowned King of France, a 
change of venue from Reims, where so many 
previous and subsequent coronations were 
held. 

The interior gives a deal of the thrill for 
which one should always be prepared. The 

129 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

gloom, so apparent at first, slowly brightens 
as the eye becomes accustomed to the finely 
filtered light, which penetrates through the 
gorgeous coloured glass, a feature which ranks 
with the spires as a vivid impression to be 
carried away. Nearly all of this glass is of 
equal worth and attractiveness, being, with the 
exception of three windows of a late date, 
and a few uncoloured ones, all of the gorgeous 
thirteenth-century variety. 

The whole mass of the clerestory through- 
out gives the effect of windows heavily hung 
with tapestries through which the outside light 
pierces in minute rays. This comparison is 
made advisedly, inasmuch as, regardless of the 
quality and value of the glass, it is composed 
mainly of those minute and fragmentary par- 
ticles often more rich in colour than design. 

There is little doubt but that the result of 
the deep rich blue, claret, and orange gives 
a first effect of insufficient lighting which 
would try an artist or photographer sorely, 
though not a detracting element in churches 
which would often appear cold and uncon- 
vincing were such an attribute lacking. There 
are also three magnificent rose windows of 
great size (thirty to forty feet), containing 
equally good glass. 

130 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

A double ambulatory surrounds the seven- 
chapeled choir, which is further enclosed 
by a magnificent sculptured stone screen be- 
gun in the sixteenth century by Texier, who 
designed the marvellous north spire. The 
Vierge du Pilier of the north choir aisle, a 
fifteenth-century shrine, is the subject of great 
local veneration. The treasury contains a 
relique in the form of the veil of the Virgin, 
supposed to have been presented by Charle- 
magne to Princess Irene. 

Other interior details of note are an 
eleventh-century font; the large crypt be- 
neath the choir; the unequal level of the pave- 
ment of nave and choir; and the maze, which 
still exists in the nave. This last feature is 
a winding circular path some forty odd feet 
in diameter, and, in all, perhaps a thousand 
feet long. As a penance in place of a pil- 
grimage to Jerusalem, '' the journey of the 
maze " was performed by the penitent on his 
knees — taking perhaps an hour or more, ac- 
cording to the size and length of the path, 
which varied with different churches where 
they formerly existed. The other most notable 
example in France is at St. Quentin, northeast 
of Paris. 



131 



IX 

NOTRE DAME DE REIMS 

The very ancient city of Reims, now the 
capital of the Department of the Marne, was 
a large centre of population when it first fell 
under the sway of the Romans. During 
Caesar's occupation it was known as Duroc- 
torum, in the Praefecture of the Gauls. 

A powerful metropolis and a faithful ad- 
herent of the Romans, the city early attained 
prominence as a centre of Christianity. St. 
Sixte preached the word here shortly after the 
first bishopric was founded, after capture by 
the Vandals in 406 A. D. The city was practi- 
cally razed by Attila, who afterward met de- 
feat at Chalons. During the Roman Empire 
it was the most important town of the Province 
of Belgica Secunda, later becoming known as 
the capital of the Remi, the name given to the 
people inhabiting the country round about. 

In 508 A. D. the Franks under Childeric 
captured the city, and in 720 A. D. Charles 

132 




NOTRE DAME 
de REIMS . . 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Martel captured it from Bishop Rigobert. 
Here, too, Pope Stephen had his famous in- 
terview with Pepin, and attended the crown- 
ing of Louis le Debonnaire in 8i6 A. D. In 
744 it was made an archbishop's see, with 
sufifragans at Amiens, Beauvais, Chalons, and 
Soissons. It is to-day the ecclesiastical capital 
of France — the Archbishop of Reims being 
the metropolitan prelate. 

Clovis, son of Childeric, King of the Ripu- 
arian Franks, in 496 A. D. conquered the last 
Roman stronghold at Soissons, and, having 
married a Burgundian princess, Clotilda, was 
induced to accept Christianity. He was ac- 
cordingly baptized here by St. Remi on 
Christmas Day, 496 A. D. 

Leo III. met Charlemagne here; a council 
was held in 11 19 A. D. by Calixtus 11. in an 
attempt to reconcile Henry I. and Louis le 
Gros; and, later, another, to excommunicate 
another Henry. 

Succeeding years saw a continuity of arch- 
bishops, who achieved by their religious 
works a world-wide fame and glory. In these 
early days they held the temporal as well as 
spiritual power of the cities, and in some in- 
stances even coined their own specie. 

In spite of the changes of the times and con- 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ditions of life, the ancient capital of Belgica 
Secunda still remains the chief city of the 
Departments of the Marne, Ardennes, and 
Aisne. Its ecclesiastical and secular monu- 
ments, headed by the grand Cathedral of 
Notre Dame, form an array which is well 
worthy of such extended consideration as the 
traveller or student can give. The Benedic- 
tine Abbey, the Church of St. Remi, is like- 
wise notable in all of its dimensions and de- 
tails. Its construction dates from 1 162-1506, 
though the remains of a former tenth-century 
structure are made use of therein. Its chief 
treasure is the tomb of St. Remi, a wonderful 
Renaissance funeral monument of imposing 
proportions. Another monumental feature 
of more than unusual note, is the magnificent 
Roman arch of the former fortress of Porte 
Mars. This truly majestic specimen of the 
work of the Roman builder is supposed to 
have been erected by Agrippa in 25 B. C, in 
honour of Augustus, although another author- 
ity puts it as late as the period of Julian, 
361 A. D. At any rate, it has stood the rigours 
of a northern clime as well as any Roman 
memorial extant; indeed, has seen fall all its 
contemporaries of the city, for at one time 
Reims was possessed of no less than three 

134 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

other gateways, bearing the pagan nomencla- 
ture of Ceres, Mars, and Venus. 

The various other memorials of the city are 
on a no less grand scale, but the average per- 
son will hardly have eyes and ears for more 
than a contemplation of the wealth of splen- 
dour to be seen in its overpowering cathedral. 
Of the glorious group of monumental churches 
of northern France, the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame de Reims, if not admittedly the most 
beautiful and memorable Gothic edifice in all 
France, needs but little qualifying comment. 
It has a preeminence which has been generally 
conceded, and even elaborately endorsed, by 
most observers qualified to pass opinion 
hereon. Contemplation of the wealth of de- 
tail, and of the disposition of its wonderful 
west front, no less than of its general excel- 
lencies, can but compel the decision that in 
its exterior, at least, the Cathedral of Reims 
is the peer of any existing Gothic fabric. 
Though less huge than Strasburg or Cologne, 
and lacking the doubled tier of flying but- 
tresses of the latter, it is altogether the most 
splendid and well-proportioned Gothic mass 
extant. The diminishing or pyramidal effect 
of the towers and gable of this west fagade 
is an exemplification of the true symmetry of 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Gothic form. Lofty, and not closely hemmed 
in by surrounding structures, it looms, from 
any adjacent view-point, fully two-thirds of 
its decorated splendour above the general sky- 
line round about. Aside from modern adula- 
tion we have the praise of an early historian, 
who delivers himself thus: 

*^ Decor et majestes praeclarissime hugus 
structurae omnem scribendi peritiam longe 
superat, ob elegantum omnibus est admira- 
tioni, at que sibi similem non habet in tota 
Gallia/' — Met. Rememsis Hist. Dom. Guliol. 
Mar lot S. Nicasii Rem. Prioris, Tom ii. p. 
470. 

Following the preaching of St. Remi, and 
the murder of St. Nicaise, who founded a 
church on this site in 400 A. D., Ebo, bishop 
in 818 A. D.^ laid the foundations of a new 
church, Louis L granting that such material 
as might be needed be taken from the city 
wall. To assist, the sovereign also sent his 
architect, Rumaldi. In 847 A. D. Archbishop 
Nicman secured a renewal of the privileges, 
and in the presence of the king the building 
was consecrated in 862 A. D. The western en- 
trance was ornamented with graven statues 
of Louis I., the patron. Pope Stephen, and the 
archbishop himself. 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

This entire fabric succumbed to fire on the 
6th of May, 1210, and the present structure 
rests merely on the remains of the ancient 
crypt, which in a measure survived. Few 
visible remains of this ancient foundation are 
to-day visible. The new church reared itself 
rapidly under the immediate supervision of 
the Archbishop Alberic de Humbert. The 
choir, begun within two years of the fire, made 
such progress as to allow of the high altar 
being ceremoniously dedicated within three 
years; and, before the middle of the century, 
the records tell us that the main body of the 
church was entirely completed. The right 
tower was uncompleted at this time, but was 
finished by Cardinal Philastre in 1430, up to 
which time intermittent labour had evolved 
a superlative combination of constructive and 
decorative excellencies. The extreme light- 
ness of the west front is brought more and 
more to impress itself upon one by reason 
of the consistent disposition of the excellency 
and delicacy of its sculptured ornament. 

This western front, from the grand portals 
upward, is the apogee of French Gothic orna- 
ment, — at once the admiration and boast of 
all France. Here is no mixture or confusion 
of style, in design or decoration. The pointed 

137 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

arches of window and doorway are of the 
accepted " best manner," the heavy detail is 
placed low and rises gracefully to the " Gal- 
lery of Kings," a grand succession of stone 
effigies of royalties from Clovis to Charles 
VII., a decorative arrangement not made use 
of elsewhere to anything like a similar extent, 
a fact which of itself stamps the cathedral as 
the royal church of France. Conceived by 
one Gaucher, the portals are not only superior 
to all others in richness, depth, and quality 
of the sculpture shown in the hundreds of 
figures with which they are peopled, but are 
of exceedingly true and appropriate dimen- 
sions, taken in relation with the other parts 
of their setting. Immediately above the gable 
of the central portal is a wonderful rose win- 
dow, of the spoke variety, containing thirty- 
four sections, — of immense size and nearly 
forty feet across. This '^ most perfect rose," 
designed by Bernard de Soissons, may well be 
credited as one of the masterworks of archi- 
tectural decoration in all the world. Flank- 
ing this great window on either side are two 
open lancet arches, while above is the " Gal- 
lery of Kings " before mentioned. The twin 
mullioned towers on either side rise for two 
hundred and sixty-seven feet. Light and airy, 

138 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

they depend for their effect of grace and sym- 
metry entirely upon structural design, lacking 
sculptured ornament of any kind. Formerly 
they possessed spires of a great height, which, 
however, were destroyed by fire in the fif- 
teenth century. 

'' Were all its original attributes complete," 
says Fergusson, '' we should have the heau 
ideal, externally, of a cathedral." This is 
probably an adaptation of VioUet-le-Duc's es- 
timate, which he expresses thus: "This west 
fagade is the most splendid conception of the 
thirteenth century, — Paris, like Laon, being 
really a transition example, Amiens represent- 
ative of different epochs, Chartres a mere re- 
union of fragments, and Bourges and Rouen 
a melange of three centuries." 

The south transept portal, which is of great 
breadth, contains statues of the Archbishops 
of Reims, and one of Clovis. A similar door- 
way on the north side, though now walled up, 
contains, in the tympanum, a fine sculptured 
" Last Judgment," while the transept itself 
houses one of those great clocks so frequently 
met with in Continental churches, — in this 
instance said to be the oldest running time- 
piece in existence. 

Seven flying buttresses, between the tran- 
139 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

sept and the west front, flank the nave, each 
holding aloft an elegantly canopied niche 
containing a full-length winged figure, a fur- 
ther unique arrangement being a similar fig- 
ure which caps or pinnacles the outer piers, 
from which the buttresses spring. Above the 
point of contact of the buttresses with the main 
body, runs an effective balustrade of small 
pointed arches, while the abside shows, again, 
a wonderful combination of the buttress as a 
decorative and utile feature, combined. 

The exterior may be summed up briefly as 
being the most gorgeously peopled and deco- 
rated structure of its age — as though it were 
expressly designed to show off this great 
throng of statues to the best possible advantage. 
Taken collectively, the series forms, says one 
writer, " the most complete and magnificent 
collection of mediaeval iconography extant." 
The figures were originally perhaps as many 
as five thousand, representing nearly all the 
families of mankind. 

In size the Cathedral of Reims ranks third 
among the four largest in France, being ex- 
ceeded only by Amiens and Chartres, while 
Paris is slightly smaller. 

The interior presents by no means the awe- 
inspiring grandeur of the exterior mass, and 

140 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

is possibly inferior to both Amiens and Char- 
tres, and though well disposed, lacks the light- 
ness of Cologne or Beauvais. A first impres- 
sion rather indicates large proportions of 
length, breadth, and height in the nave, 
though these dimensions are not actually of 
the greatest. The transepts, including their 
aisles, are, however, of an extreme width, but 
very short; and the absence of side chapels, 
either here or in the nave, produces a regu- 
larity of outline unusually convincing. 

The nave piers, of which there are ten on 
either side, with two window piercings, are 
of a manifestly heavy order, the capitals un- 
usually so, being very deep and weighty with 
carving in high relief. The triforium is se- 
verely plain, being a mere shallow gallery of 
small pointed arches. The nave itself is, more- 
over, somewhat gloomy, when contrasted with 
the brilliant lighting of the aisles, caused by 
the peculiar arrangement of plain and col- 
oured glass, the former filling the windows 
of the clerestory and the latter those of the 
aisles, the reverse being the case with the op- 
posite ranges. The aisles have no chapels be- 
tween the rather low windows, but groups of 
clustered columns against the walls. The 
vaulting is deep, with simple ribs, coloured 

141 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

with a blue ground spangled with stars and 
fieurs-de-lys. The choir is surrounded by 
seven chapels. 

There are ten columns in the choir, all with 
beautifully wrought capitals. The pavement 
here is composed of marble taken from Liber- 
gier's abbey church of St. Nicaise, from 
which edifice, since destroyed, was trans- 
ferred the tomb of Jovinus, the Roman pre- 
fect of Reims, who became converted in 366 
A. D. The sarcophagus consists of a huge 
block of marble, nine feet by four, with a fig- 
ure of Jovinus, ^' lion hunting on horseback," 
carved in high relief. The roof of the choir 
is curiously constructed of wood, of chestnut, 
say the authorities, as no spiders are found. 
The high altar, as reconstructed by Poncelet 
Paroissien in 1550, was a very beautiful affair 
if old prints, usually none too reliable as to de- 
tail, are regarded. It was, however, destroyed 
during the middle of the eighteenth century. 

The glass of the rose window dates in part 
from the period of the greatest richness (thir- 
teenth century) . 

The sepulchral monuments, aside from the 
sarcophagus of Jovinus, are to-day practically 
nil, having been swept away during the terrors 
of the Revolution. Two interesting effigies 

142 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

still remain, however, near the western door- 
way, a figure of a mailed knight and an abbess. 

Among the real riches of the Cathedral are 
the remarkable and unique tapestries; well 
preserved, and of the finest quality of design 
and texture. Fourteen, by Lenoncourt, date 
from 1530-70; those in the south aisle, the 
Pepersacks, the gift of Abbe Lorraine, from 
1640; and the modern Gobelins of the nine- 
teenth century, the gift of the government. 
The '' Tresor," which includes the church 
plate, most of which appears to have endured 
the ravages of invasion and wars, is truly 
magnificent and intrinsically of great value. 
The chief of these are: the chalice of St. 
Remi, of the eleventh century; a reliquary 
containing a thorn from the Holy Crown; 
the marble font in which Clovis was baptized 
in 496 A. D. ; the chasuble of Louis XIIL, 
and the Salute Ampoule, which contained 
the holy oil brought by a dove from heaven 
for use at the conversion of Clovis, now a mere 
fragment enclosed in a modern setting, after 
having been ruthlessly shattered by a sans- 
culotte in 1793. 

Adjoining the Cathedral, on the right, is 
the Episcopal Palace, which, with its depend- 
encies, occupies a hectare or more of ground. 

143 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

In the first courtyard is the modern library 
building, which houses the cathedral's rich 
bibliographical treasures. Further, through 
a gateway, is a structure, in itself a grand 
building, of the time of Louis XIV. The 
right wine was constructed by Le Tellier in 
1690. This portion is now occupied as a 
dwelling by the archbishop. At the end of 
the furthest courtyard is '' The House of the 
Kings," a truly grand establishment, so called 
in the official documents because it was the 
logement of the monarchs who visited the 
city on affairs of state. This recalls to mind 
not the least notable of the functions per- 
formed by the great cathedral itself. 

With four exceptions all the Kings of 
France, from Clovis to Charles X., here first 
entered into their kingly state. The monarchs 
of France were a long and picturesque line, 
and the ceremonies attendant upon their coro- 
nations were accordingly imposing and mag- 
nificent. The culmination, for theatrical 
splendour and effect, was doubtless that of 
Charles VII., who, through the efforts of the 
" Maid," here came into his own. It was a 
splendid, if gaudy, pageant, and the most 
memorable event among that long series 
which only ended with the coronation of 
Charles X. in 1823. 144 



PART III 

The Cathedrals of the Loire 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Loire Valley for its whole length may, 
in every sense, be well considered the divid- 
ing-line between northern and southern in- 
fluences. The romance and sentiment which 
cradled itself here could only have emanated 
from the more languid south, and from vastly 
differing conditions to those of the colder 
north. The admiration usually bestowed 
upon the attractions of its domestic architec- 
tural forms is, no doubt, fully merited; albeit 
that the cathedrals of these wealthy and power- 
ful communities are, no one can possibly deny, 
if not of a mongrel type, at least of a degen- 
erate one. It is perhaps hardly fair to note 
such an expression without qualification where 
it is applied to St. Gatien at Tours, which is 
really a delightfully picturesque structure; or 
to St. Maurice, at Angers, which is unique as 
to its charm of situation, and one of the most 
interesting churches anywhere to be found. 

147 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

But the fact is that the general plan and design 
is not only open here to much just criticism, 
but is not of the order of consistency which 
alone entitles an architectural monument to 
rank as truly great. In no instance, from 
Orleans to Nantes, are the cathedrals of these 
cities possessed of the consistent array of 
charms which would entitle them to a propor- 
tionate share of the admiration which is 
usually accorded to the great domestic estab- 
lishments, the Chateaux of Blois, Chenonceau, 
Chambord, Langeais, or Loches. 

The climatic conditions of this region 
hardly more than intimate the suggestion of 
the southland, but there is to be seen in the 
vineyards, and indeed in things that grow, gen- 
erally, a notable tendency toward a luxuriance 
that is not found northward of this valley. 
Productive, prosperous, influential, and pos- 
sessed of historical and sentimental associa- 
tions as a touring ground far beyond any other 
section of France, the Valley of the Loire at 
once takes rank as the land par excellence 
where the traveller can be sure of a maximum 
of pleasure and profit; and one worthy in 
every way of as prolonged study and sojourn 
as one's possibilities and circumstances will 
allow. 

148 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The towns group themselves naturally en 
suite in the following order: Orleans, Blois, 
Tours, Angers, and Nantes, and are so con- 
sidered in the pages that follow. 



149 




II 



ST. CROIX D'ORLEANS 



The association of Orleans, in English 
minds, mostly rests upon the events connected 
with the siege. Its history in the past has been 
mainly that of bloody warfare and massacre. 
As the Genabum of Gallia, it was burned by 
Caesar in 52 B. C. in revenge for a previous 
massacre of the Romans. By Aurelian it was 
rebuilt and named Aurelianum, the progenitor 
of its present nomenclature. St. Aignan in 
451 secured the safety of the city to the cause 
of Christianity by warding off Attila's attack. 

150 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Clovis captured it in 498, but at his death it 
became the capital of an independent king- 
dom which was afterward, in 613, united with 
that of Paris. Activities no less extensive or 
vivid followed, till the English besieged the 
city in 1429, only retiring before the conquer- 
ing hosts led by the Maid of Orleans on the 
7th of May; the Huguenots held it as a strong- 
hold under Coligny; and latterly the Ger- 
mans occupied it, were driven out, and again 
reoccupied it as a base in 1870-71. Such, in 
brief, is a partial record of its troubles and 
trials, with scarce a reference to a Christian or 
religious motive, if we except Attila's unsuc- 
cessful attack and Coligny's Protestant fer- 
vour. 

The almost legendary part played by 
Jeanne d'Arc should suffice to impress indeli- 
bly upon the mind the chief event in connec- 
tion with any city with which her name and 
fame were associated. 

In the third century seven bishops were sent 
out from Rome, to extend the influence of the 
Church, to Tours, Orleans, Toulouse, Nar- 
bonne, Paris, Limoges, and Auvergne; though, 
in spite of the success with which they met, 
and the zeal with which they worked, their 
meetings were chiefly held in the houses of 

151 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

their more opulent converts, and church build- 
ing at the time appears not to have been so 
much desired as the dissemination of the 
Word itself. Since its occupation by the Ger- 
mans in ^' '71," great contrasting elements have 
sprung up. Nowhere, not even in the " up-to- 
date " Rhine cities of Germany, is better ex- 
emplified the trend of the age in which we 
live. There are notable indications of its mo- 
dernity in the architecture of public and pri- 
vate buildings, many streets and boulevards of 
the city being laid out anew and bisecting the 
older portions. 

The Cathedral of St. Croix, of widely con- 
trasting styles and eras, forms a pleasing 
enough key-note to it all, in spite of its garish 
crudities. At its best, when viewed from the 
bridge which spans the well-nigh dry bed of 
the Loire, it composes well with what is at all 
times a pleasing prospect, and is set off to 
great advantage by the fringe of green boule- 
vard along the river bank, — a fine enough 
setting for an architectural monument of 
whatever rank, be it new or old, consistent or 
conglomerate. As for the classification of the 
architectural style of the cathedral itself, it is 
an unprincipled mixture of components, but 
little related to each other. The southern in- 

152 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

fluence is apparent, alike in the scanty remains 
of the Romanesque, and the restored Renais- 
sance portions, while Gothic peeps out here 
and there, in no mean proportions, as though 
it were misplaced and out of its true environ- 
ment. The cathedral, which was destroyed in 
1567 by the Huguenots, in spite of the ad- 
monitions of the Condes, is still visible in the 
fragments of the choir aisles, the fourteenth- 
century chapels appearing to have been unin- 
jured. This much remains of the Gothic of 
Henry IV.'s time. The late seventeenth-cen- 
tury work is a manifest expression of the de- 
basement of Gothic, and such other additions 
as were made in the reigns of the Louis carry 
the vulgarities still further, the acme being 
reached in the pseudo-classical north and 
south porches, which are sepulchral-looking 
of themselves, and not even of the most ad- 
mired variety of the species. The most that 
can be remarked, considering all the distinct- 
ive features, is the fact that this cathedral is 
the only Gothic church, so ranking, that is 
not of Mediaeval growth, a fact which may 
well account for its unsatisfactory style. 

The fagade follows the usual enough ar- 
rangement of three portals, though very ugly 
ones, flanked by rising towers on either side. 

153 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

In this case these doorways are of the nonde- 
script variety commonly accepted as base 
Gothic, but hardly warranting even such a 
term of endearment. They are in fact flam- 
boyant as to their lines, though of a remark- 
able poverty as to further embellishment, if 
we bar a series of misplaced armorial blazon- 
ings. 

Topping the gables of the portals are a 
series of circular apertures, with framing of 
a sort, but without glass, — a poor imitation 
of what a rose window might be at its worst. 
Above is an arcaded gallery of nine graceful 
arches, the first really attractive ornament of 
this debased fagade. The towers, finished so 
late as 1789 by M. Paris, the king's architect, 
rise loftily some two hundred and eighty feet, 
with ranges of slight columns and perpen- 
dicular lines, which give the grand and im- 
posing effect of height of which the cathe- 
dral is undeniably possessed, and which, 
when viewed from down the Rue Jeanne 
d'Arc, is without doubt impressive, — far 
more so than greater intimacy will sustain. 

The nave, of a height of one hundred feet, 
is flanked by double aisles, and in appearance 
is every way superior to the exterior. 



154 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

No remarkable art treasures are to be seen, 
if we except a series of sculptured Stations of 
the Cross beneath the windows, and the Gothic 
altars of the transepts. 



155 



-■Ay 

0^ 




III 



ST. LOUIS DE BLOIS 

Regardless of the sentiment which attaches 
itself to Blois by reason of its magnificent 
chateau, and in spite of its undeniably pictur- 
esque and interesting environment, it hardly 
takes sufficient rank as a cathedral city to war- 
rant more than a passing consideration. As it 
is, one cannot get from under the shadow of its 
overpowering attraction, and, in spite of the 
poverty and depressing qualities of the Cathe- 
dral of St. Louis, perhaps no place in the 
Loire valley has more claim upon the atten- 
tion of the enthusiastic tourist. The wonderful 

156 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

chateau is all that has been said of it, and 
more. The picturesqueness of the city's streets 
of stairs, and its general up and down hill 
situation, offering charming vistas, unique in 
a city of the north, are, except for its size, 
really more suggestive of Genoa or Naples. 
In the general ensemble of the city, the Loire 
is an attraction of itself, when viewed from 
across that wonderful stone bridge, the first 
public work endowed by Louis XV. But even 
then, the awkward and uninteresting cathe- 
dral does not enter into the view with that 
liveliness and impressiveness which we are 
wont to associate with such an environment. 
In short, it must be set down that in the lack of 
pleasing qualities in its cathedral, is found 
Blois' greatest disappointment. 

The tourist pur sang will care little about 
this. He usually rushes in and out during the 
daylight, and recalls but little except the fas- 
cinating staircase of the chateau attributed, as 
to its spiral formation, to Da Vinci; the orna- 
mental chimney-pieces; and the fact that his- 
torical" events of the past have intermingled 
inextricably the gruesome stories of the royal 
houses which bore respectively the arms of 
hedgehog and salamander. This only, with 
perhaps the memory that at one time or an- 

157 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

other a certain event took place involving the 
use of some forty odd daggers. 

Perhaps, after all, it would be an embar- 
rassment of riches did the town possess a 
cathedral, or even other monuments, to vie 
with this spectacular attraction which, from 
every view-point realizes the ideal of our 
imagination, as to just what a chateau and its 
history might be. 

From near or far the cathedral shows no 
charm of outline. Its ridgepole is marred by 
three unusually obtrusive " lightning conduc- 
tors," which could hardly have been more of- 
fensive had they been turned into those lath- 
like crosses which are seen elsewhere. Its 
tower is a monstrosity, with an egg-shaped 
protuberance which is neither shapely nor 
impressive, while the southern range of the 
nave and aisle, when viewed laterally, shows 
a bareness and poverty of design unusual and 
painful. The ensemble, from this point, is 
one of a certain impressiveness. It could 
hardly be otherwise, with the situation which 
it commands, even were it the grossest thing 
that ever took shape in architecture. Its ir- 
regularities and inconsistencies, and the great 
variety of outline shown by the roof-tops of 
the town, perhaps, make up in a measure for 

158 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the lack of individual beauties in the church 
itself. 

There is this much to be said, however, for 
the functions which this church performs. If 
all were as much made use of by the market- 
day peasants, streaming in from the surround- 
ing country, who, with their jugs, market- 
baskets, and what not, in their hands, enter the 
building, say a short prayer or two, and toddle 
out again, there would doubtless be fewer 
churches with a poverty-stricken air and more 
of a better and more prosperous class. 

The greater part of the cathedral which 
originally stood on this site was destroyed dur- 
ing the Revolution, and that which was after- 
ward reared here was merely a restoration by 
Mansard, who, it is to be presumed, made 
such use as was possible of what remained. 

The interior, most will agree, is no more 
remarkable than the exterior adornments; in 
fact the same paucity of plan and of detail 
appears from one end to the other, inside and 
out. The aisles are astonishingly low; the 
choir and nave, each unusually short. There 
are no transepts, and there is no triforium 
whatever, no chapels of any remarkable 
beauty, and little glass that is even passable. 
On the walls of the nave, beneath the low 

159 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

clerestory windows, are a series of four carven 
Renaissance marble panels, with other blanks 
suggesting the ultimate addition of similar 
sepulchral-looking ornaments. Such, in brief, 
is a resume of the attractions, or rather the 
lack of them, as it will strike the average per- 
son. It is perhaps no small wonder that the 
traveller who desires to study architectural 
forms, or to sketch them, should prefer the 
less holy precincts of the chateau, where every 
facility is offered for the pursuance thereof, to 
that more '' blessed ground," covered by the 
cathedral, which offers little enough in itself, 
and that little under a surveillance which 
makes one regret that the feudal times are 
not still with us, — when we might vent our 
spleen and anger upon any who ofifend us. 



1 60 



IV 

ST. GATIEN DE TOURS 

The soi-disant provincial metropolis of 
Mr. James' appreciative favour, the capital 
of old Touraine, is possessed of great and 
many charms for the seeker after new things. 
He may be passionately fond of churches ; if 
so, the trinity here to be seen, and the history 
of their founders and prelates, and the impor- 
tant part which they played in church affairs, 
will edify him greatly. If romance fills his 
or her mind, there is no more convenient cen- 
tre than Tours from which to '' do '' the cha- 
teaux of the Loire. If it be French history, or 
the study of modern economic or commercial 
conditions, the past activities and present pros- 
perity of the city will give much food for 
thought. If to literature one's mind turns, 
there is the association with Balzac's birth in 
the Rue Royale, and his delightful picturings 
of the city's environment in the " Cure de 
Tours," '' Le Lys dans la Vallee," and " La 

163 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Grenadiere." Says Balzac of the habitant: 
" . . . He is a listless and unobliging indi- 
vidual." But the sojourner for a day will 
probably not notice this, and, if he should, 
must simply make allowance, and think with 
Henry James of the other memories of " this 
land of Rabelais, Descartes, and Balzac; of 
good dinners, good company, and good 
houses." To link the city still closer with let- 
ters, the first printing-press in Touraine was 
set up here in 1496. Nicolas Jensen, famed as 
the foremost Venetian printer of his time, was 
born in the neighbourhood and was at one 
time '' Master of the Mint " at Tours. Chris- 
topher Plantin, the head of the famous Ant- 
werp family of printers, likewise was born 
in the near-by suburb of St. Avertin pres 
Tours. 

Climatically, Touraine appears to linger 
between the rigours of the north and the mild- 
ness of the southland ; at least we are conscious 
of another atmosphere, made apparent by 
such evidences as palms and prunes growing 
in the open. 

Tours, says her historian, has ever em- 
ployed the pure French in her spoken and 
written word; "patois and provincialisms 
have no place here." 

164 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

St. Martin of Tours erected a church here, 
in honour of St. Peter and Paul, as a sort of 
antidote to the many pagan temples which he 
had caused to be destroyed. His successors 
built several others round about the city, but 
they appear to have been all of small size until, 
in the fifth century, Perpetus, Bishop of Tours 
in the reign of Childeric, caused to be built a 
more splendid church to replace that which 
Briceius had erected over the tomb of St. 
Martin. This, in turn, was rebuilt by the cele- 
brated Gregory of Tours, or so ordered by 
him; until finally in the seventh century the 
abbey church of St. Martin of Tours became 
a place of pilgrimage for all the Turones. 
To-day, nought remains of this great church 
but the two towers, which have been bisected 
by the running of a street throughout the old 
nave of the church; and thus they stand as 
silent sentinels of the means through which 
Tours arose to its ecclesiastical dignity. The 
Tour St. Martin or " de I'Horloge " is of the 
twelfth century, and the other, called the Tour 
de Charlemagne, being the burial-place of his 
wife Luitgarde, is, in its lower portions, of the 
eleventh century. 

The Cathedral of St. Gatien, which should 
be greatly endeared to the English people, was 

165 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

commenced by Henry II. in 1170, the choir 
being the earliest portion. The transepts fol- 
lowed in the next century, and the fagade as 
late as the fifteenth, or the beginning of the 
sixteenth, century. Of manifestly Renaissance 
tendency, this fagade for sheer charm and pic- 
turesqueness must rank with the best, with the 
qualifying statement added that it offends 
against many consistent artistic and architec- 
tural principles. It is certainly an effective 
type, although perhaps not warranting the 
statement of a certain monarch, whose art 
training may to some degree have been want- 
ing, that it was a " jewel in a gemmed setting." 
An exceedingly picturesque and attractive pair 
of towers rise, through no less than three dif- 
ferent styles, to the inverted egg-cups, which 
in a purer example might perhaps prove less 
pleasing, but which in the present case seem 
at least to be imbued with something of the 
Oriental or Mediterranean influence, not yet 
fallen before the actual decadence. Another 
peculiarity of this charmingly toned west front 
is that the rose window is of a peculiar lozenge 
shape, ^' neither square nor round," as one 
authority puts it. This, of itself, is decidedly 
not a graceful arrangement; but the propor- 
tions are ample and the glass is good, so its 

166 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

deficiencies may in a measure be said to be 
overbalanced by its merits; and, for that 
matter, as it is only seen in its minutia of 
detail from the inside, where the excellent 
coloured glass is seen at its best, it hardly de- 
tracts from the general fine effect of the 
exterior facade. The western doorways are 
thoroughly Renaissance, both inside and out, 
while the portals themselves offer a livid sug- 
gestion as to what they might have been, were 
all the bare niches and blocks filled and 
mounted with worthy statues. The effect 
would have been an undeniable approach to 
the best matured Gothic, and would have en- 
hanced greatly this already highly interesting 
fagade. The buttresses of the choir follow the 
accepted forms of grace and effectiveness, and, 
while not numerous or remarkable as to size, 
each springs to a supporting pier gracefully 
pinnacled and gargoyled. One instance of the 
functions of this valuable adjunct to the tower- 
ing forms taken by most Gothic structures, is 
a buttress which springs, unsymmetrically 
enough, from the north transept. This rather 
ungainly limb flies out like the tentacles of 
an octopus, grasps a small building on the 
opposite side of a narrow roadway, and forms 
a support to the irregular construction of the 

167 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

north transept. This was perhaps necessary 
as a means of bracing the transept wall, which 
it might not have been possible to accomplish 
otherwise. 

The interior presents the unusual feature 
of the omission of the organ case from over 
the western doorway, the organ being in this 
instance in the south transept, as at Le Mans. 
The wall space centered upon the nave proper 
is entirely given over to the lozenge-shaped 
" rose," which, in spite of its rather heavy 
framing and kaleidoscopic and patchworky 
glass, is withal effective beyond many more 
gracefully formed openings, where the glass 
is either too severely plain, or worked into a 
supposed design, which, by reason of its 
minute particles, is undecipherable. The de- 
sign and arrangement of a series of lancets 
supporting the lozenge would be remarkable, 
were it in company with the best glass of the 
middle ages. It depicts an " Adoration " in 
which kings, saints, and bishops are modelled 
brilliantly, and with evidence of much good 
drawing, a detail often wanting in old, or, for 
that matter, modern glass. 

The glass of the choir, on the other hand, is 
far better in arrangement, and shows deep, 
rich particles which are only at their best in 

i68 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the work of the early period here shown. In 
this glass are depicted the arms of St. Louis, 
Blanche of Castile, and of the City of Tours. 
The choir itself widens out from the crossing 
of the transept, causing that deviation between 
the piers of nave and choir which made neces- 
sary the ungainly flying buttress of the north 
wall. 

The aisles of the nave are of no great width 
and are fringed with a series of chapels of 
which only one, that of the Sacred Heart, is 
in any way remarkable. The radiating chap- 
els of the choir are more interesting, notably 
the lady-chapel, which contains old glass re- 
moved thither from the church of St. Julien, 
the subject of one of Turner's rhapsodies in 
his " Seine and Loire." 

The clerestory of the nave consists of plain 
glass only; and on the triforium alone, of ex- 
ceedingly graceful arcaded columns, depends 
the beauty of the upper ranges. 

The chief treasure of artistic value and mo- 
ment is unquestionably the tomb of the chil- 
dren of Charles VIII. and Anne of Brittany, 
by whose early deaths the throne passed to the 
Valois branch of the Orleans family. This 
remarkable monument is of the early sixteenth 
century and, according to the report of the 

169 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Commission des Monuments Historiques, is 
the work of Guillaume Regnault, a statement 
which is much more likely to be correct than 
the usual guide-book information, which in 
some instances credits it to Goujon, and in 
others to a local apprentice of his, named 
Juste. On a Renaissance sarcophagus lie the 
two tiny effigies, in white marble, surrounded 
by guardian angels and other symbolical fig- 
ures. The base bears escutcheons of the 
Dauphins of France, the arms and two inscrip- 
tions referring to the princes and their birth. 




Flying Buttress, St. Gatien de Tours 



170 



ST. MAURICE D'ANGERS 



Historically and romantically, Angers, 
the former capital of Anjou, is possessed of 
a past (which may be said to have actively 
commenced in 989) that cannot fail to arrest 
and hold one's attention. Capital of the Dukes 
of Anjou, and the home of Margaret of Anjou, 
daughter of Rene, who married Henry VI. of 
England; likewise the cradle of the first 
Plantagenets ; and immortalized by Shake- 
speare's King John, who soliloquizes anent 
" The flinty ribs of this contemptuous town." 
With all this. Angers has perhaps a supreme 
claim for English consideration. In spite of 
all this, and the added attraction of a " real 
castle," such as is seldom found outside the 
children's fairy-tale books, not to mention the 
Cathedral of St. Maurice, — of which more 
anon, — Angers leaves one with the impres- 
sion that very much is wanting in order to 
merit preeminence in the classification of those 

173 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

memories which a traveller is wont to store 
up as a result of his travels and observations. 
Perhaps it is the city's pitiful attempt to be 
gay, to be modern, to undertake pretentious 
improvements, — all of which appear to fail 
utterly in their purpose. These things cannot 
be unless they are of a spontaneous growth, 
which here they apparently are not. Not that 
the city still merits the opprobrious (jfc) term 
of " Black Angers " with which most writers 
and all makers of guide-books are pleased to 
refer to it, — it hardly does. In fact it is 
doubtful as to just what the term originally 
meant. Perhaps it was merely a reference to 
the gloom caused by the extensive use in the 
construction of its buildings of the black slate 
in which the neighbourhood abounds; — at 
any rate the expression is one of undoubted 
antiquity. 

The two chief attractions are the cathedral 
and the castle, both '' historical monuments." 
The latter, as before noted, is the ideal mili- 
tary stronghold of our early imagination; and 
if age, magnitude, and the general air of good 
preservation, count for anything, it must be 
one of the most impressive monuments of its 
class still to be seen. Originally its wall, now 
minus battlements, fronted close upon the 

174 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

river. It is surrounded by a dry yawning fosse, 
formerly a moat, and possesses no less than 
seventeen enormous and perfectly formed 
towers, each perhaps eighty feet in height, 
banded near the top in white and black stripes. 
Hardly more than a circling wall to-day, it 
has stood well the test of time since it was 
erected by Philip Augustus and completed 
under St. Louis in 1180. Little remains of 
the Renaissance portion originally occupied 
by the Counts of Anjou. Its charm lies rather 
in its exterior, the interior confines resembling 
more a lumber-yard than anything else, — not 
worth spending one's time upon, under the 
present facilities which are offered for its in- 
spection. One small structure within the walls 
is notable as being that in which King Rene 
was born. It is recorded that Wellington re- 
ceived a part of his military education in 
Angers. If so, it is probable that he studied 
this military defence with some care and 
minuteness. To us, at least, who have not been 
educated with respect to military fortification, 
it seems to fill all demands that are likely to 
be made upon a building of its class. Doubt- 
less it could have been besieged successfully, 
and even battered through to the extent of 
allowing the outside foe to enter, but it would 

17s 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

probably have been at a fearful cost, and it is 
possible that the attempt would be given up 
before any surrender took place. Such would 
appear to an outsider to be the lines on 
which these magnificent works of feudal times 
were built. 

One should not speak slightingly of the 
Cathedral of St. Maurice, though it comes 
upon one who journeys from the north, as a 
thing apart from anything he has met before; 
so much so that he is hardly likely to be able 
to judge it dispassionately until he has turned 
his impressions of it many times over in his 
mind. 

The Angevine style, seen here, is represent- 
ative of but a very restricted area. The Societe 
des Monuments Historiques defined it as '' a 
small district on both sides of the Loire be- 
tween Normandy and Acquitaine." It is sug- 
gestive of the Roman manner, far more than 
the Gothic; though the primitiveness shown in 
the long, upright lines of the west front of this 
cathedral marks it at once as something dif- 
ferent from either Romanesque or Transi- 
tion, — though Transition it must be, unless 
we delimit the confines of that useful term. 
In any case, it points unto heaven in a truly 
devout manner, is not debased in any partic- 

176 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ular, and, if not a consistent style, has many 
of the good qualities of both. The Cathedral 
of St. Maurice is best seen from a point 
of view which will exaggerate its height, its 
slimness, and its straight and upright lines; 
but even this does not appear to work out to 
its disadvantage, in spite of the new note it 
strikes. It is an interesting work when viewed 
from any distance sufficient to throw its outline 
well into the air. From across the Maine, it is 
charming; from the foot of the stairwayed 
street which runs downwards from its western 
portal, it is picturesque and irresistible, while 
from any other view-point in the town, it is 
grand. 

The easterly end is dwarfed by close-lying 
houses, picturesque enough in themselves; but 
the gracefulness of the buttress is wanting. 
The south side is, here and there, broken into 
by additions and interpolations, none appar- 
ently of a contemporary era. It offers a grand 
effect for an artist who would study gray walls 
and crumbling roofs, but the lack of uni- 
formity will offend most people. 

The fagade of the west is the most effective 
feature, so far as genuineness is concerned. It 
towers to the sky, its needle-pointed spires 
overtopping a crooked street which rises 

177 . 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

sharply from the river. There is but one 
portal, and that is centred with a curious Ro- 
manesque arch half-way across its height, 
above which is a bas-relief of great size. The 
sculpture of this portal, while not as excellent 
as that seen in the Isle of France, is of an un- 
usual richness and execution. The next range 
is unique among west fronts, being a large 
central window, but slightly pointed and little 
removed from the Romanesque. It is bare 
of coloured glass, and is decidedly not an at- 
tractive feature. On each side of this great 
window are a series of blunt pointed lancets, 
which form a sort of arcade which otherwise 
relieves the bareness which would exist. Im- 
mediately above is a row of niches which hold 
eight armour-clad knights of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, inferior perhaps, in execution, to the 
sculpture of the portal, but producing an ef- 
fect, when viewed from the ground, undenia- 
bly fine. It is a detail as interesting, in its way, 
as the long " Gallery of the Kings " at Reims. 
Above rise the slim spires, with an octagonal 
cupola superimposed over a central structure, 
which looks to this day as though it were origi- 
nally intended as one of a battery of three uni- 
form spires. The general plan of this fagade 
is the masterpiece of design of the building, 

178 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

and, except for the ludicrously diminutive 
clock-face, could withstand nobly the cavil of 
the most exacting pedant who ever read or 
studied architectural forms, solely out of 
books. In the immediate foreground falls the 
before mentioned street of steps. Many old 
tumble-down houses have recently been 
cleared away, and, at the present writing, the 
view from this point is one which has appar- 
ently not previously existed, and one which 
it is to be hoped will not be marred by the 
erection of any so-called modern improve- 
ments. 

The interior fills no accepted formula of 
architectural expression, save that it is of the 
manner common to Anjou, the borderland be- 
tween the Gothic aisled and the great and aisle- 
less southern naves, but it holds one's interest 
none the less. Perhaps, after all, it is the 
quality to interest, quite as much as that to 
please, which is the standard by which one 
makes estimates and forms opinions. There is 
a not very long nor very wide nave and choir, 
neither with aisles, and both with a vaulting 
which gives the appearance of being much 
lower than it really is, quite the contrary im- 
pression to that received from contemplation 
of the exterior. The bishop's throne sets mid- 
179 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

way on the right of the nave. Each bay of the 
side walls of the nave is composed of a wide 
pointed arch resting immediately upon the 
ground and filled with stone instead of glass; 
reminiscent of a similar effect in the Church 
of Notre Dame de la Cloture at Le Mans. 
The true windows of the nave rise in pairs 
above this arch, and contain rich, though some- 
what fragmentary, glass of the thirteenth cen- 
tury. As characteristic of the Angevine style, 
there is no triforium or clerestory, and hence, 
it is claimed, no necessity for flying buttresses, 
the support being accomplished by less grace- 
ful, if as effective, heavy square piers built into 
the outer wall. 

The transepts are not pronounced as to 
length or breadth, their chief beauty being 
their rose windows. 

The choir, of the twelfth century, shows an 
interpolated and elaborately flamboyant door- 
way of a much later period. 

An ornate oaken pulpit of none too good 
Renaissance carving is in the nave, and the 
organ case over the western doorway is sup- 
ported on the shoulders of a series of huge, 
grotesque, but monstrously human, wooden 
caryatides. This, with the gigantic, high 
canopied carven wood pulpit, one of the most 

i8o 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

extraordinary in the country, forms a relief to 
coldly chiselled stone, certainly; — but few 
will consider their charms such as would war- 
rant counting them amongst ecclesiastical 
treasures. 

The fourteenth-century tapestries from Ar- 
ras (or Paris) were made for King Rene and 
by him given to the cathedral. They repre- 
sent scenes from the Apocalypse, and, though 
having suffered somewhat from the depreda- 
tions of the Revolution, still exhibit evidences 
of rare qualities of workmanship in their de- 
sign and colouring. 

The benitier of verd-antico marble sup- 
ported by figures of lions is a Byzantine work 
of the eastern empire, given to the cathedral 
by King Rene. 

The Dukes of Anjou and Margaret of 
Anjou were buried here, but the tomb of the 
latter was desecrated and destroyed during the 
Revolution. Aside from these, no other 
monuments of note are to be seen. 

The Bishop's Palace, of the twelfth century, 
standing high beside the cathedral, was re- 
stored by VioUet-le-Duc and reflects a medi- 
aeval splendour unseen elsewhere in the city, 
with respect to any great or small domestic 
establishment. 

i8i 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The Maison Barrault in the Logis Barrault, 
built by a former mayor of the city, one time 
Chancellor of Brittany, was the scene of the 
magnificent entertainment offered Caesar 
Borgia in 1497. Afterwards it became the 
residence of Marie de Medicis; later, a mon- 
astic establishment, then a seminary, and lately 
simply an ordinary private school. Says one 
writer, " No wonder its remains should be so 
scanty and ill preserved.'' 



18a 




VI 



ST. PIERRE DE NANTES 



As a city of commercial and strategic im- 
portance, no one will deny that Nantes is su- 
preme in the Loire valley; that its relations 
with the affairs of Church and State are 
equally important, is a debatable point. True, 
the edict in favour of Protestant worship, 
fathered by Henry IV., was a momentous and 
significant event; but the revocation, and the 
subsequent massacres of the rascally Carrier, 
well-nigh wiped that out. The history of the 
city is one long record of warfare and blood- 
shed. Though holding the command of the 

183 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Loire, the city has ever been more closely iden- 
tified with Brittany. Here, in its frowning 
tenth-century castle, which fronts upon the 
river immediately in the foreground of the 
Cathedral of St. Pierre, with which it forms 
an unusual grouping of ecclesiastical and mili- 
tary architecture (M. H.), lived at one time 
or another, most of the Kings of France, from 
Charles VIII. downward. Here, too, Anne 
of Brittany was born, and here she married 
Charles VIII., thus uniting the Duchy of Brit- 
tany with the crown of France. Her subse- 
quent marriage, in the chapel of the castle, 
with Louis XII., made for ever impossible the 
future independence of the city. 

Following the edict came the Revolution; 
and, as if the preliminary horrors of massacres 
and atrocities, which spread to Orange in Vau- 
cluse and to Arras in Picardy, were not 
of sufficient stringency, the '' Noyades," or 
drownings, carried off the poor unfortunates, 
a boatload at a time, until it is estimated 
that perhaps nine thousand were thus cruelly 
murdered, — women, children, royalty, and 
the clergy alike. The wrath which spent itself 
seemed to know no rank. The guillotine, dis- 
ease, and famine finished the work, so that the 
population of the city was, at the beginning of 

184 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the nineteenth century, immeasurably inferior 
in numbers to what it had been a decade be- 
fore. The details of these significant events 
are recounted quite fully enough by historians 
generally; but, in reality, it has little to do 
with the aspect of the city as it exists to-day, 
which, if not one of great splendour, partakes 
in no small measure of the attributes of a large 
metropolis, amply planned, beautifully laid 
out, and possessing, in addition to the charac- 
teristics of Brittany with which it has been 
so long identified, not a little of the influences 
and attributes of the south. 

Immediately to the rear of the chateau is 
the Cathedral of St. Pierre, ancient as to its 
foundation, and grand as to its general effect, 
both inside and out, though its exterior is 
marred by its uncompleted towers. Lofty, 
but of heavy proportions, St. Pierre de Nantes 
would, at first sight, appear to offer much that 
goes to make a satisfying ecclesiastical build- 
ing. As a matter of fact, it fails in many par- 
ticulars to realize any ideal which we have 
come to admire. The western facade is more 
indebted to the rich and reasonably ornate 
portals for its undeniable impressiveness, than 
to the gable of towers, which have crumbled 
exceedingly from the effects of wind and 

185 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

weather, rather than of great age, since they 
date only from the fifteenth century. 

The choir rests on the remains of an older 
church, hardly to be seen to-day in any appre- 
ciable evidence, in that restoration and re- 
building have been so extensively carried on. 

The windows throughout are but weak dec- 
orative elements, and lack tracery and glass of 
a decorative quality, an obvious detraction in 
any great architectural work. The south 
transept shows indications of four successive 
periods of construction, and contains the best 
glass in the church; otherwise it is severely 
plain. 

The interior is by no means as incoherent 
as the exterior, the height of the nave, one 
hundred and thirty feet, giving an otherwise 
unapproachable grandeur; though this ad- 
mirable dimension is qualified to no small de- 
gree by a triforium of a luxurious florid 
growth, little in keeping with the other at- 
tributes of firmness and strength. 

The chapels throughout are bare and un- 
interesting so far as their altars or decorative 
embellishments are concerned, — what they 
may be at some future time, if the Art Nou- 
veau gets a foothold in church decoration, is 
fearful to contemplate. Paintings, none too 

i86 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

common in French churches, are here some- 
what in excess of customary numbers, though, 
as to quality or interest, in no church in France 
can they vie with those of the great churches 
of Italy or Flanders. 

Like the neighbouring city of Tours, 
Nantes has in its cathedral, for its piece de 
resistance, a magnificent sepulchral monu- 
ment, the tomb of Frangois IL, the last Due 
de Bretagne, and Marguerite de Foix, his 
second wife, erected to their memory by their 
daughter Anne. This remarkable mausoleum 
was executed in 1502-07, after designs of 
Jehan Perreal, by Michel Colomb and his 
pupils, Regnault and Jean de Chartres, with 
the assistance of Jerome de Fiesole, who con- 
tributed the ornamental portion. It fortu- 
nately escaped demolition at the Revolution, 
and was brought hither and placed in the 
south transept from the Eglise des Carmes in 
1817. It is a wonderful exemplification of the 
very best quality of Renaissance. The main 
portion of the tomb is of marble, with black 
mouldings somewhat shattered in places, but 
not so much so as to affect the contour or de- 
sign. The effigies lie recumbent upon a slab, 
their feet resting on a lion and a greyhound, 
upheld by a series of miniature figures of the 

187 



The Cathedrals of Nortliern France 

twelve apostles in niches of red marble. At 
the corners are four nearly life-size figures, 
depicting Justice, with sword and scales, said 
to be a portrait of the Duchess Anne; Power, 
strangling the dragon of Heresy; Prudence, 
a double face, showing also Wisdom, with 
mirror and compass; and Temperance, bear- 
ing a curb-bit and a lantern. A tablet at 
the head bears the figures of St. Louis and 
Charlemagne, and one at the foot, those of 
St. Francis of Assisi and Ste. Marguerite, the 
patrons of the duke and duchess. 



i88 



PART IV 

Central France 



^('^ 




^m. 




h 
w 



ST. ETIENNE D'AUXERRE 

The entrance to the Burgundian city of 
Auxerre is more or less confused if one would, 
at the first glance, attempt to recognize its 
cathedral from among the three fine churches 
which in true mediaeval fashion loom up over 
the river Yonne ; not that the entrance is not 
pleasing: the reverse is actually the case, 
though one's way into the town lies through 
newly made roads. However, upon contem- 
plation of the pleasant prospect of town and 
river, he would be an uninspired person in- 
deed who would not be able to pick out the 
Cathedral of St. Etienne, with its singular 
reddish brown roof, from among its less im- 
posing neighbours. It is the central build- 
ing of the three, and it rises majestically above 
all, enhanced by the fine grouping of its one 
lone tower. 

As a type to admire, the cathedral, be it 
said, is not of a superlative quality; but as a 
thing of beauty in many of its details and 

191 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

because of its aforesaid commanding situation, 
it is one not to be ignored when the really fine 
gems of mediaeval treasures are catalogued. It 
is another of those types, so far as its choir is 
concerned, which rise to a loftiness of soaring 
height, which, in later days, degenerated, or 
were lost altogether in the fabric of the tran- 
septs and nave. The height of the choir is 
perhaps not so great as it really appears, when 
gauged by its sheer rise from the river level; 
but such is the suggestion, at least, which, 
after all, is what the eye and certain other of 
our senses admire, quite as much as a pro- 
fessed expert classification. 

The western front is of unusual appearance 
in that the southern tower glances off into the 
angle of the gable in most curious fashion; 
not beautiful, nor as originally intended to 
remain, but so it is, and offers at least a com- 
parison of how a lofty gable looks when it 
lacks towers of an appropriate height. At the 
right of this low tower of the fagade, hidden 
behind a wall, is a thoroughly Pagan door- 
way, which might well pass unobserved, did 
one not actually stumble upon it unawares. It 
is a curious reminder of other days and other 
ways, and how it became an adjunct of this 
mediaeval church the local records fail to 

192 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

state. The three main portals of the fagade, 
as that of the transept, are somewhat bare of 
ornament, though the main tympanum and the 
spring of the arch are fairly filled. These por- 
tals are of the late thirteenth century, and ex- 
hibit no traces of the debasement which sub- 
sequently entered into the upper ranges of the 
tower and lateral portals. 

Both the transepts and the west front con- 
tain rose windows of good, though not remark- 
able design, and each is exceedingly generous 
in size. The interior, generally, does not give 
the effect of the great height suggested from 
the rear view of the choir overhanging the 
river front; but both nave and choir are of 
unusual width, and so also is the clerestory, 
which is lofty, and set with rare old glass of 
the most splendid and valuable quality, in the 
main the gift of Bishop de Villeneuve in 1220. 

The choir terminates with the usual apse, 
which is further elongated by the far-reaching 
lady-chapel, which adjoins the main fabric 
in a graceful and unusual manner. The north 
tower was completed as late as the sixteenth 
century, and that of the south was left unfin- 
ished, — as it is to-day. The gable and its 
portals are highly decorated with statues, 
niches, and crockets. 

^9Z 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Around the aisles of nave and choir is a curi- 
ously suggested arcade with an overhanging 
balustrade ornamented with a series of indif- 
ferently sculptured heads. The bosses of many 
of the intersecting groins of the vaults are 
coloured with questionable effect. There are 
also many visible evidences of coloured wall 
decorations, which might perhaps as well 
have been left covered, inasmuch as they have 
suffered exceedingly in the attempted restora- 
tion; so much so, that it is impossible to say 
whether they ever approached acceptable per- 
fection; possibly not, as they are supposed to 
date only from the period when much of this 
class of work was of none too good a quality. 

The triforium of the nave is gracefully bal- 
ustraded, and the choir stands apart from the 
nave, separated by an elaborate eighteenth 
century iron grille. The ambulatory of the 
choir sets three steps lower than the nave, 
though the platform is on the same level. The 
crypt beneath the choir, so often the only exist- 
ing remains of an earlier church, is here 
grandly in evidence, and dates from the elev- 
enth century at least. 

There are a few interesting tombs of former 
Bishops of Auxerre and others of local celeb- 
rity. 

194 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

On the whole the charm of Auxerre and its 
cathedral must be admitted to lie in its gen- 
eral surroundings and immediate environ- 
ment, quite as much as because of any remark- 
ably distinctive features of a superlative 
quality in the cathedral itself, though an un- 
deniable wealth of picturesque detail exists. 

The conventional guides speak of it as 
^' highly interesting," and so it is, with its 
Romanesque remains, its ungainly fagade, its 
three fine but weather-worn doorways, and its 
charming river view. 

Beside the cathedral stands the old-time 
Episcopal Palace with its fine arcaded Ro- 
manesque gallery overlooking the river, where 
the prelates took their " constitutionals," 
safely guarded from wind and weather. To- 
day this grand building represents the official- 
dom of the local Prefecture. 

Two other noble ecclesiastical monuments 
are to be seen here, the Church of St. Germain, 
or rather, the fragment which was spared by 
the Huguenots, now being used as an adjunct 
to a hospital; and the Church of St. Pierre. 
The latter is the most appalling example of a 
Renaissance building which one is likely to 
meet with, and shows in its remarkable fagade, 
in sheer perversion of misdirected labour, the 

195 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

grossness of pseudo-classicism, which quite 
entitles it to rank with that other equally 
abominable example in Paris, St. Eustache. 

The portail of this remarkable church, lo- 
cally so called, though in reality it is only a 
detached gateway, far from the church build- 
ing itself, is a wonderful Italian suggestion, 
now mellowed and weathered and undeniably 
charming in colour in spite of its being so 
manifestly out of its environment. 



196 



II 

ST. ETIENNE DE BOURGES 

The Cathedral of St. Etienne de Bourges 
partakes of the same honours which are ac- 
corded to the premier quartette of the Isle 
of France. Nearly contemporary with Paris 
and Laon, this cathedral steps into its rank 
with a grandeur and firmness that in a less 
stolid or more ornate edifice is often wanting. 
It retains certain of its Romanesque features, 
perhaps unduly pronounced; likewise it has 
certain attributes of Burgundian luxuriance; 
but withal it presents the highly developed 
Gothic tendency to a far greater degree than 
either. Although not far to the south of Paris, 
Bourges is thoroughly of another climatic 
environment, which not only shows itself in 
the changed conditions of life, but in the 
manner of building as well. 

The great transeptless church of St. Etienne 
is another of those soaring monuments which 
rise skyward and hold the eye whenever one 
is in its vicinity. Standing on an eminence of 

199 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

not very great height, it dominates, from every 
point of view, the plain which surrounds the 
city and reminds one of Noyon or Laon in its 
comparative isolation. Not because its domi- 
cile is not a place of some magnitude, but 
rather because the neighbouring houses lie so 
huddled in a valley or plain, does the city give 
the impression of being of less size than it 
really is. 

The view from the railway on entering the 
town is, as it has been called by some imagi- 
native Frenchman, '^ but the hors d'oeuvre of 
the architectural feast to follow," and on 
drawing still closer, it composes grandly with 
the swift-flowing little river lined with the tall 
slim trees which are so distinguished a feature 
of a French landscape. 

Like Beauvais, Amiens, and, in only a 
slightly lesser degree, Le Mans, the sheer fall 
of the nave and choir from ridge to ground 
startles one by its exaggeration of perpendicu- 
lar lines. Though by no means of the great 
height of these other examples, its great size 
first impresses one as its distinguishing feature. 
It sits, too, on the edge of a beautiful wooded 
park which, in conjunction with the modern 
Episcopal Palace, forms an ensemble of stone 
and verdure not often to be seen as the environ- 

200 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ment of a French cathedral. The gardens are 
quite open to the public and are set forth with 
clipped hedges, trees, and monumental stone 
work of no mean order. 

Bourges is another of those ancient founda- 
tions of mid-France where Romish influences 
died hard, and Gothic, as a perfected type, 
never, as it were, attained its majority. Here, 
the mixture of style is notable; pointed and 
rounded arches intermingled, apparently in- 
discriminately, with thoroughly Gothic sup- 
ports, muUions, and piers. These, with the 
characteristically Renaissance north and south 
porches, with their carven doorways, all go to 
complete a series of typically fashioned details, 
each true to its own age. Such a combination 
of varying virtues should give the student, or 
the seeker after new sensations, something 
more to think about than a mere catalogue of 
consistent charms; for it cannot be denied that 
this church, standing aloof from any other 
single type, is a marvel of grandeur and im- 
pressiveness, whatever may be its failings 
when dessicated by the theorist or the archae- 
ologist. 

It is unlikely that Saracen or even Moorish 
influences were ever at work so far north as 
this ; but there is an unquestionable tendency 

20I 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

in much of the debased decoration of this 
church to more than suggest a similarity to 
both. It is, of course, not Gothic, as we know 
it, nor Byzantine, pur sang, and it is certainly 
not Italian, but something quite different. It 
is, perhaps, worthy of record that the inverted 
horseshoe arch more nearly approximates what 
is commonly considered the Moorish form; 
or, to give it a wider locale, Mediterranean, at 
least. The polygonal turrets which flank the 
towers and the chapels of the abside look, too, 
not unlike a sub-tropical feature, possibly 
Saracen. Such details are markedly notice- 
able here, and it is because of features such 
as these that one is minded to consider the 
church as something quite different from any- 
thing seen elsewhere. 

To carry the argument still farther, if these 
details are to be considered in any sense 
Gothic, or any outgrowth thereof, it certainly 
augurs much for the possibility of this style 
having come originally from the East, or at 
least the Mediterranean countries. It has been 
claimed before now by English and French 
writers alike, that it may have developed from 
the arts of the Moors of Spain, or that it may 
have grown up from a primitive style in vogue 
in the Far East. The comment is given with- 

202 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

out further elaboration; but here, at least, 
we see some basis for the claim that Gothic is 
but a transplanted flower after all, and that it 
developed so boldly only from the seed's hav- 
ing been blown hither from some other land, 
and finding a favourable soil in which to take 
root and flourish. 

Without transepts, the long flank of the 
nave and choir is singularly beautiful, broken 
into at regular intervals by buttresses which, 
if not remarkable examples, are at least grace- 
ful, though so light that they have been visibly 
stayed by iron rods, as is frequently the case 
elsewhere, at Beauvais particularly, where the 
whole fabric appears to be hung together by 
wires. 

The actual inception of the cathedral is 
attributed to Rudolphe de Turenne, forty- 
sixth Archbishop of Bourges. Of his known 
work only the round-arched crypt remains, 
upon which foundation the present grand pile 
was reared. 

The west front possesses a quintette of por- 
tals, deeply recessed, but of a decidedly mixed 
Gothic and Renaissance treatment as to dec- 
oration. Such a range of elaborated door- 
ways is hardly to be found in such luxuriance 
elsewhere, though the fact that there are five 

203 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

in all, standing grandly in a row, is perhaps 
not unique of itself. They are profusely dec- 
orated with sculptured forms of angels, saints, 
and kings. The tympanum of the cen- 
tral portal contains a " Last Judgment," re- 
markable alike for its magnitude and work- 
manship. Throughout, these portals vary in 
date of their construction, their treatment, and 
their excellencies, but in general they are 
homogeneous and convincing. In the gables of 
three are circular piercings which open into 
a sort of vestibule or porch; but these are 
entirely without glass. Another unique fea- 
ture of this western front is a curious lofty 
double-storied structure, a chapel-like build- 
ing, of whose functions most will remain in 
ignorance. It is connected with the main 
body of the church by a long tentacle-like 
ligature through which, says Henry James, 
'' the groaning of the organ or the pealing of 
bells must be transmitted with distressing 
clearness." 

The hybrid tower on the extreme left, with 
many round-arched windows and much florid 
ornament, is familiarly called the " Tour de 
Beurre," and, as its compeer at Rouen, was 
built from the contributions of those who were 
willing to forego themselves the luxury of 

204 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

butter. To the right is a much less imposing 
tower, but one that is much more true as to 
its style. It rises scarcely above the central 
gable, and helps to exaggerate the lack of uni- 
formity of the facade, a condition much de- 
plored by the true Gothic builder, though 
whether such varying detail does not after all 
make a more interesting, and perhaps as edi- 
fying a work for pleasurable contemplation, 
is an open question. There is, in any event, 
a marvellous power in this massive west front 
to confirm one's opinion that it is a compre- 
hensive and yet varied thing. Another curious 
feature of this front is a pair of overlying but- 
tresses of no apparent purpose as to staying 
power, since the wall space which they flank 
is of no inordinate height. The window space, 
though, is ample ; and, though mostly in blank 
to-day, at a future time those blanks might 
be broken out; hence the necessity for these 
extra props. 

The interior gives, likewise, a grand im- 
pression, one of vaster magnitude than in 
reality exists. The length is probably exag- 
gerated by reason of the lack of transepts; but 
its breadth, including nave and aisle, is un- 
usually great, and the height is further magni- 
fied by the fact that the aisles themselves have 

205 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

three ranges of openings, above which, in the 
nave, rise the triforium and clerestory, — 
surely alone a sufficiently unusual arrange- 
ment to account the church as of remarkable 
planning. Its great beauty may be said to be 
the magnificent proportions throughout, rather 
than the preeminent intrinsic value of any 
specific detail. 

The rose window of the west end, though of 
grand proportions, appears to fail utterlyas a 
supreme effort because of the flatness and de- 
pression given to its circumferential outline. 
Like that of St. Gatien at Tours it is of an 
uncertain lozenge shape, while the effect is 
further lessened by the mediocrity of its glass 
and framing. 

The general appearance of the interior is 
one of symmetrical grandeur, wherein the ef- 
fect of each dimension is probably enlarged, 
but with a fine and consistent proportion. Its 
conventional embellishments are not unduly 
ornate; though, for that matter, they do not 
give the impression of being wanting to any 
great degree either in quality or quantity. In 
no particular, however, is the sculptured form 
of figure or foliage of that excellence and 
magnitude of that of the cathedral at Reims 
or at Amiens. 

206 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The magnificent proportions of the choir 
well merit the term of " Burgundian opu- 
lence." Its termination opens with an ampli- 
tude often wanting in even a larger building, 
the piers being wide apart, without screening, 
which heightens still more its generous pro- 
portions. 

The two picturesque cardinal's hats, with 
cord and tassels, have long been pendant from 
the vault of the choir, and are now dimmed in 
colour and thick deep with dust, seemingly 
destined to fall of sheer old age and decrepi- 
tude. Further particulars concerning this pic- 
turesque detail are wanting only from the lack 
of any one in attendance from whom one 
might get this information, — perhaps some 
reader of these lines may be more fortunate. 

On the pavement of the nave is a brass rule, 
inlaid diagonally from the north to the south 
wall. Its original use appears to be clothed 
in some obscurity, one informative person 
stating that it is the line of departmental divi- 
sion, and another that it marks the meridian 
of Paris, which is shown on all French navi- 
gation charts. Its real purpose is evidently 
topographical rather than of religious or sym- 
bolical significance. 

An ardent French writer deplores the fact 
ao7 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

that there is no monument here to show respect 
for Louis XL, who was born at Bourges and 
baptized in the cathedral; a pity, perhaps, 
and certainly a subject worthy of the consid- 
eration of '' the powers that be." 



%Q% 




Ill 



ST. CYR AND ST. JULIETTE DE NEVERS 



A UNIQUE experience is one's first contem- 
plation of the " gay little city of Nevers " from 
the Pont du Loire, with the none too large 
Cathedral of St. Cyr and St. Juliette crowning, 
as it were, the apex of a series of steep rises 
from the Loire, which, even at this distance 
from the sea, still retains its ample breadth. 
Said Arthur Young in his plain and bald 
phraseology, '' Nevers makes a fine appear- 
ance." Here, on the very threshold of the 
southland, it is something of a shock to be 

209 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

brought at once into intimate association with 
Italian influences and types of architecture; 
for, be it recalled, Nevers has been truly '^ an 
Italian stronghold in the midst of France," 
with little to remind one, but its speech, that it 
is merely a provincial French market-town. 
Nevers was the seat of the Italian Dukes and 
Counts of Neivre, who built the ducal palace, 
the ci-devant chateau, now the Palace of Jus- 
tice. Here, later, dwelt the nephew of the 
great Mazarin, who said his king '' had a 
heart more French than his speech." Through 
his efforts the Nivernais was incorporated 
with the French crown in 1669. 

This fine turreted, towered, and decorated 
building, with its sculpture attributed to Gou- 
jon, is to-day, in appearance at least, what it 
was in the past, — the typical urban domestic 
establishment of grand proportions and splen- 
did appointments; though it may hardly be 
said to vie with such masterpieces as Cham- 
bord, Chenonceau, or Blois. Nor, for that 
matter, is the town itself entitled to rank, as to 
its events of historical importance or the fame 
or personality of its bishops or counts, with 
either Chartres or Le Mans, both of which it 
somewhat approaches in point of size. 

Aside from its many and varied charms, 
210 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

which have been duly set forth by most writers 
on the French provinces who have had any- 
thing whatever to say about it, Nevers should 
be doubly endeared to all makers of guide- 
books and students of ecclesiastical architec- 
ture, from the fact that the Abbe Bourasse, 
Honorary Canon of Nevers, here wrote and 
dedicated to his bishop, Mgr. Dufetre, a work 
treating of the French cathedrals which will 
ever rank as one of the most delightfully writ- 
ten and useful books of its class. This fact 
perhaps is hardly to be reckoned as of histor- 
ical moment, but pertinent to the plan of the 
present work nevertheless. 

Nowhere, not even in Provence or Acqui- 
taine, are to be noted more significant tend- 
encies toward a southern influence in the 
matter of civil and ecclesiastical building. 
True, many of the minor structures have to- 
day descended unto base uses, and many of 
their perfections and beauties are therefore 
sunk below the surface. For instance, where 
a palace has become a warehouse, or a church 
been turned into a stable, or been given over 
to the uses of a wine factor. 

Before even considering the cathedral it- 
self, — dedicated to the hero of the legendary 
tale concerning St. Cyrus, who, depicted as a 

an 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

naked child riding astride a wild boar, was 
able to turn the infuriated beast from a certain 
King Charles (further designation not given) 
and preserve him from danger, — it is well 
to know that most authorities agree in giving 
habitation here to one of the most perfect 
Romanesque churches in all northern Europe, 
that of St. Etienne, built in 1063--96, and 
consecrated in the latter year by Ivor, Bishop 
of Chartres. Of the century contemporary 
with this fine work, as yet hardly spoiled by 
any offensive restorations, are two columns, in 
the easterly portion of the Cathedral of St. 
Cyr, which bear the date of 1024. From this 
foundation the lover of churches will rear for 
himself an exceedingly interesting and uncom- 
mon type. 

Not of the first rank, St. Cyr has the power 
to hold one's attention far more closely and 
interestingly than many of greater worth and 
magnitude; and its environment, from every 
point of view, composes itself into a picture 
which it would be hard to duplicate. The 
grouping of the chevet of the choir with the 
low roofs of the town lying at its base, and the 
gardens of the ducal chateau in the immediate 
foreground, forms an unusually varied com- 
bination of the picturesque. 

212 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The wealth of Nevers in architectural 
monuments would be notable in a town many 
times its size. The Port de Paris, a not espe- 
cially attractive Renaissance gateway, guards 
the northerly, and the Port du Croux the west- 
erly, end of the town. This latter groups 
nobly with the west end and tower of the 
cathedral, and is of itself a monument of the 
first rank, being so designated by the Com- 
mission des Monumentes Historiques. A 
feudal defence, square, broad-based, turreted, 
flanked with circular watch-towers, and still 
further strengthened by a barbican which 
once held a portcullis, this wonderfully effect- 
ive barrier more than suggests the mediaeval 
stronghold. Two other towers of the ancient 
enceinte still remain, the Tour Gougin, and 
the Tour St. Eloi. 

Intimate acquaintance with the cathedral 
shows a blending, not offensive, but in no slight 
manner, of the Romanesque, early and late 
Gothic, and finally Renaissance styles. Nev- 
ertheless there is an apparent cohesiveness 
often lacking in a larger work, or in one built 
within a shorter period of time. One dis- 
tinctly northern feature there is; namely, the 
singular effect given by the double apse of the 
nave and choir, reminiscent mainly of the 

213 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Rhine builders, that of the eastern end being 
much the older. The half-obliterated frescoes 
of the domed vaulting of the western apse 
indicate that it was completed after the pure 
Italian manner at a considerably later time 
than the opposite end. It is hardly a beautiful 
or even a necessary feature to either the ex- 
terior or interior of a great church, and, fortu- 
nately, is unusual in France, though common 
enough in Germany, notably at Mainz, 
Worms, and Treves. The most remarkable 
interior effect, aside from this western apse, 
is that of the lofty Gothic arches, springing 
high above the Romanesque arches of the 
nave, and naturally of a much later date. Cer- 
tainly this must be, so far as the respective pro- 
portions of each are concerned, an entirely 
unique feature. Notable evidences are to be 
seen of frescoes, probably the work of some 
Italian hand, both on the screen and in the 
domed apse. They have apparently been 
whitewashed over many times, but remorse, 
if tardily, has evidently come lately, and such 
restoration or renovation as has been possible, 
has been undertaken. 

A dainty and diminutive spiral stairway, 
suggestive of having been modelled on the 
lines of the grand spirals at Chambord or 

214 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Blois, and half enclosed in the surrounding 
wall, leads to the Chapter Room above. The 
eastern apse, and the crypt beneath, are the 
earliest parts readily to be observed and are 
probably the remains of the Romanesque 
structure built by Hugh II. early in the elev- 
enth century, after the common type of the 
Auvergnat and Angevine churches. 

Perhaps the best workmanship to be noted 
is that of the thirteenth-century chapels sur- 
rounding the choir. Reclus, a French au- 
thority, has declared that the ornamental foli- 
age here is not only really admirable as to 
itself, but is the '' perfection of imitation," and 
extends this commendation also to the work on 
the pillars and capitals of the north doorway 
by which the church is usually entered. 

The interior generally is brilliant and pleas- 
ing, though good glass is mostly wanting, and 
the uninterrupted flood of light detracts meas- 
urably from the warmth and geniality sug- 
gested by the memory of Bourges, Chartres, or 
Auxerre. The rose window over the western 
apse is pitifully weak and quite lacking in 
effectiveness. 

A canopied baldacchino rises above the 
altar and, being of stone treated in a graceful 
Gothic manner, is an ornament much more in 

215 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

good taste than the hideous mahogany or 
oaken serpentine atrocities which are often 
erected. 

It is impossible to come into close contact 
with the exterior of this cathedral except by 
approaching it from the eastern end. West 
front there is none. As one has said, " It pos- 
sesses merely a western end." The western 
tower, of two non-contemporary orders of 
Gothic (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), 
whether viewed from near or far, is far more 
pleasing than any other general exterior fea- 
ture. The chevet of the choir extends, as it 
were, well into the nave, there being no tran- 
septs. This is evidently a local custom, recall- 
ing the neighbouring cathedrals at Bourges 
and Auxerre. 

The sculptured decoration of the later por- 
tion is exceedingly well disposed, and of such 
magnitude and numbers as to lack that pov- 
erty in the ensemble often apparent in a more 
pretentious work. 

The Church of St. Etienne in Nevers, so 
thoroughly Roman in inception of design and 
execution of detail, indicates more vividly 
than any other example that might possibly 
be taken, the shortness of time in which the 
Gothic development actually took place. 

216 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

With Notre Dame at Paris full in mind, it is 
well to recall that these accepted perfect ex- 
amples of two contrasting types are scarce a 
hundred and fifty miles apart, and, in point 
of time, but sixty years. What an exemplifica- 
tion this surely is of the transition which came 
to the art of church building in the twelfth 
century; what extraordinary rapidity of con- 
ception and development, and how narrow 
were the confines of the true Gothic spirit, in- 
digenous only to the royal domain, which 
alone produced the churches which fully merit 
the concisely expressed definition of Gothic: 
" A manner of building maintained (sus- 
tained) by a system of thrust and counter 
thrust." 



%l'] 




IV 



ST. MAMMES DE LANGRES 



Langres is reminiscent of but one other 
cathedral city in the north of France; like 
Laon, it occupies and fortifies the crest of a 
long drawn out hill, or, to give it dignity, it 
had perhaps best be called in the language of 
the native '^ de la montagne de Langres," since 
from its apex, it is truly dominant of a wide 
expanse of horizon. 

Of the Burgundian transition type, the 
Cathedral at Langres, dedicated to St. Jean 
the Evangel and St. Mammes, is in many ways 
a remarkable architectural work, but contami- 

218 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

nated beyond cure by two overbearing Greco- 
Roman towers and a portal of the mid-eight- 
eenth century. As a relief, there adjoins the 
main body of the church, on the southeast, one 
of those masterworks of the supreme Gothic 
era, — a canon's cloister of an exceeding thir- 
teenth-century beauty. In other respects, the 
exterior is of little note except as to its won- 
derful degree of prominence in the general 
grouping of the roofs of the town, when the 
city is viewed from below. 

The interior spreads itself out in severe and 
imposing lines with hardly a remarkable fea- 
ture in either transepts or nave. The organ- 
loft, a Calvary, and a marble statue of the 
Virgin, by Lescornel, a sculptor of Langres, 
and a few modern sculptured monuments, 
are the only decorative attributes to be seen, 
if we except the Renaissance Chapelle des 
Fonts Baptismaux with its sculptured vault- 
ing on the left. 

The symmetrical choir is in itself the true 
charm of St. Mammes. It has a fine ambula- 
tory, and a range of eight monolithic columns, 
removed, says tradition, from an ancient 
Pagan temple. Their capitals are ornamented 
with carven foliage, grimacing heads, and fan- 
tastic animals. 

219 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

A sixteenth-century screen surrounds the 
choir, but is more like unto a triumphal arch 
than a churchly accessory. 

The high altar is a comparatively modern 
work, as may be supposed, and dates only 
from 1810. 

On the right of the choir is an elaborate 
Roman doorway, and preserved in the Chap- 
ter Room are five paintings depicting the 
" Chaste Susanne." A remarkable collection 
of reliques is shown by the sacristan, in the 
Chapelle des Reliques. 



V 



NOTRE DAME D AUXONNE 

The small town of Auxonne, lying between 
Dijon and Besangon, is seldom thought of in 
connection with a cathedral church. There is 
little there to compel one's attention beyond 
the fact that the Church of Notre Dame, of the 
fourteenth-sixteenth century, is an interesting 
enough example of a minor edifice which at 
one time was classed as a cathedral. 

The church is mainly Gothic and has the 
unusual arrangement of a Romanesque tower 
rising above the transept. 

220 



PART V 
East of Paris 



INTRODUCTORY 

No arbitrary territorial arrangement can be 
made to include with exactness each and every 
ecclesiastical division, but, since the Royal 
Domain and the immediately adjacent terri- 
tory includes the major portion of what are 
commonly accepted as the Grand Cathedrals, 
it has been thought permissible, in the present 
case, to make a further subdivision which shall 
include Boulogne and St. Omer, north of 
Paris; eastward to the Rhine and southward 
to include Dijon and Besangon. A topog- 
rapher might not make such a division or 
arrangement of territory; but no other seems 
possible which shall include the region lying 
between the extremes of Besangon and Bou- 
logne. 

The local characteristics or architectural 
types differ widely within these limits, both 
as to style and excellence. In one way, only, 
have they advanced under conditions of unity, 

223 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

that of the establishment of a Christian 
church, but, otherwise, now favouring the 
northern influence and now the southern. The 
frontier provinces have, as a natural course, 
been subject to many retarding influences 
which have been wanting elsewhere; for in- 
vasion from without may be depended upon 
to be as baneful for the preservation of a 
nation's art treasures as a revolution from 
within. The Christian element early forced 
its way among the Franks, and Clovis, at the 
solicitation of his Christian queen and her 
bishop, was not averse to adopting what he 
might otherwise have regarded as a super- 
stition. His conversion at Reims not only fos- 
tered and propagated Christianity, but gave an 
impetus to the foundation and building of 
churches in a most generous fashion. 

The region to the eastward of Paris, which 
has played no unimportant part in the history 
of France, while prolific as to varied types 
of church building, possesses but one exam- 
ple of the very first rank, — and that, as a 
style which typifies Gothic art, may be said 
to rank supreme over all others, — Notre 
Dame de Reims. As the seat of the Metropol- 
itain, and the City of Coronations, it was allied 
closely with early affairs of Church and State. 

224 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The principles and manner adopted by 
Guillaume of Sens in his great works early 
affected the style here, as seen by the many 
transition examples, just as the influence of 
the Monk of St. Beninge of Dijon caused the 
round-arched species of the west of France. 
At all events the primitive Gothic influences 
were early at work and in a measure absorbed 
the Romanesque tendencies which had flour- 
ished previously. 

The most notable exception, an example of 
the distinctly southern type, is at Besangon, 
which has a remarkable array of contrasting 
style, with the Romanesque, though not of the 
best, predominating. 

With the cathedrals in the extreme north- 
erly section we have little to do, — in fact 
there is little that can be said. St. Omer is 
possessed of a wonderful old church which 
at one time ranked as a cathedral, and which 
has glimpses here and there of very good 
Gothic. There are also, in this otherwise not 
very interesting city, two other church build- 
ings worthy of more than an ordinary amount 
of attention, the ruins of the Abbey of St. 
Bertin and the Church of St. Denis. 

Boulogne-sur-Mer has a modern pseudo- 
classical structure built well into the nine- 

225 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

teenth century. It is more notable as a mon- 
ument to the industry of the man who brought 
about its erection, taking the place of a former 
structure burnt during the Revolution, than 
as a satisfactory example of a great church. 
The same may be said with equal truth of the 
atrocious Renaissance and Pagan structures 
to be seen at Cambrai and Arras, though the 
conditions under which they were built dififer. 
At Cambrai, however, the present building 
replaces a former structure levelled by fire. 

Chalons-sur-Marne, — dear to every French 
patriot as being renowned for the manufac- 
ture of flags, a suffragan of Reims, has a re- 
markable cathedral of Romanesque founda- 
tion of the fifth to the seventh centuries. 
Its warlike record, from 273 A. D.^ when Aure- 
lian vanquished Tetricus, to the occupation by 
the Germans in 1871, is one long succession 
of military affairs. To-day the city is the dom- 
icle of the most important army corps of 
France. 

These towns, with Nancy, Toul, and St. Die 
in the valley of the Moselle, complete the list 
of those cities which by any stretch of terri- 
torial boundaries could be classed under the 
head of " East of Paris." 

It may be a debatable point as to whether 
226 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Strasbourg and Metz might not have been in- 
cluded; the writer is inclined to think that 
they might have been, though their interests 
and influences have always been more Teu- 
tonic than Gallic, — still, they are thoroughly 
Germanized to-day, and, as we cannot inter- 
rupt the march of time, and the present vol- 
ume will otherwise approach the limits origi- 
nally set out for it, they must perforce be 
omitted. 




lii WJ.^ : 4? ■^^o^'THe^^ ^i. . ^j^.^"c ^-^ . ^ • ^Z M^ 



227 



II 

NOTRE DAME DE BOULOGNE-SUR-MER 

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER is one of those neg- 
lected tourist points through which the much 
travelled person usually rushes en route to 
some other place. It perhaps hardly warrants 
further consideration except for the history of 
its past, and its intimate association with cer- 
tain events which might seriously have 
affected the history of England. It is, how- 
ever, an interesting enough place to-day, if one 
cares for the bustle and rush of a seaport and 
fishing town, — not very cleanly, and overrun 
with tea-shops and various establishments 
which cater only to the cockney abroad, who 
gathers here in shoals during the summer 
months. There is, too, a large colony of resi- 
dent English, probably attracted by its near- 
ness to London, and possibly for purposes of 
retrenchment, for there is no question but that 
the franc, of twenty per cent, less value than 
the shilling, accomplishes quite as much as 

231 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

a purchasing power. This must be quite a 
consideration with pater- familias with a lim- 
ited income derived from Consols or some 
other traditionally " excellent investment." 

Most travellers are familiar with what at- 
tractions Boulogne really does offer, but few 
if any would consider its very modern and 
ugly cathedral one of them. 

Perched in the centre of the Haute-Ville, 
overlooking the city and port, the Cathedral 
of Notre Dame exists to-day more as a monu- 
ment to the energy and devotion of its founder 
than as a notable architectural work. It fol- 
lows no particular style, except that it is 
Italian of the most debased general type, 
though no doubt parts of it meet the dimen- 
sions and formulas laid down by accepted 
good examples in its native land. There is 
no doubt but that its domed cupola is mani- 
festly out of place, though this detail is the 
only feature which gives the cathedral any 
distinction. 

A Gothic church stood here up to the Revo- 
lution, and the building of the present struc- 
ture was devotedly undertaken to replace its 
loss by a doubtless earnest man, who, in his 
zeal, sought to build after what he considered 
a newer if not a better style. Parts of the 

232 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

crypt are of the ancient twelfth century 
church; but the structure above dates from 
1 827-66. 

Its fagade, of a poor classical order, is 
flanked by two slight cupola towers equally 
meaningless and insignificant. Surmounting 
the central dome is a colossal statue of the 
Virgin. 

The interior is in no way remarkable or in- 
teresting. There are a few monuments and 
a gorgeous high altar of precious marbles, 
mosaic, and bronze, the gift of Prince Alex 
Torlonia. The lady-chapel is still resorted 
to as a place of pilgrimage by the seafaring 
and fisher folk of the neighbourhood. 

A modern reproduction of a sarcophagus 
from the catacombs at Rome forms the tomb 
of Mgr. Haffreingue (1871). 



nz 



Ill 

NOTRE DAME DE CAMBRAI 

Cambrai is one of that quartette of cathedral 
cities of northern France which in no sense 
take rank as ecclesiastical shrines of even ordi- 
narily interesting, much less beautiful, attri- 
butes. Of the other three, Arras, St. Omer, 
and Boulogne, St. Omer alone is possessed to- 
day of anything approaching the great Gothic 
churches which were spread broadcast 
throughout France during the five centuries 
of church building in the middle ages. 

In manners and customs, and indeed in 
speech to some extent, these cities all partake 
somewhat of the locale of those of the Low 
Countries. These attributes, which have re- 
tained their original identities across the bor- 
ders, were for many centuries, and even so late 
as the seventeenth century, existent in French 
Flanders. Curiously enough, in none of these 
cities are any of the primitive Gothic types to 
be noted in the cathedral churches, though 

^34 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

many possess their olden-time belfries and 
watch towers, preserved to-day with some- 
thing of the local pride which evinces itself 
elsewhere with respect to cathedrals. It is 
possible that this is due to the fact that this 
great industrial centre of northern France is 
more given to the arts of manufacture than to 
the devotion of church-going or even of 
church building. Another notable and almost 
universal feature of these cities are the Re- 
naissance or Romanesque gateways, — silent 
reminders to-day of the mediaeval communi- 
ties which they once protected, and of the war- 
like invasions of the past. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Cambrai 
is on the site of an older abbey church, which 
was of the same ugly style as the present edi- 
fice itself, but which dated, however, only from 
the early eighteenth century. The present 
building is said to furnish a replica, of the 
vintage of 1859, of the tasteless and crude style 
of the earlier building. There are statues 
therein of Fenelon, Bishop Belmas, by David 
d' Angers, and of Cardinal Regnier; and a 
series of grisaille windows, after originals by 
Rubens, by Geeraerts of Anvers. 

The chimes of Cambrai rank among the 
most noted in Europe. They are composed 

235 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

of thirty-nine bells and produce a carillon, 
" very agreeable," says a French authority. 
They certainly do, — the author can endorse 
this from a personal knowledge, — and they 
have not as yet descended to such banalities as 
popular military marches. The largest bell, 
given by Fenelon in 1786, weighs 7,500 kilos. 




^>» 



236 



IV 

NOTRE DAME DE ST. OMER 

Under Baldwin of Hainault, Artois, in- 
cluding St. Omer, was ceded to the kingdom 
of France as late as the mid-seventeenth cen- 
tury. Few minor churches are possessed of 
the galaxy of charms and attractions of the 
ci-devant Cathedral of Notre Dame at St. 
Omer. Hardly in the accepted forms of good 
taste are the Byzantine slabs of marble stuck 
upon the walls here and there, as in a museum ; 
the Renaissance screens; the overpowering 
organ case; the votive offerings and tablets 
without number; and the alleged wonderful 
astronomical clock, with its colossal wooden 
figures of the sixteenth century, — all of 
which go to compose a heterogeneous mass 
more interesting as to occasional detail than 
as a thorough expression of saintly tempera- 
ment. 

The decorative scheme is carried still 
further by the large number of paintings with 

237 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

which the church is hung; a tribute none too 
common in France, and more usually asso- 
ciated with the Flemish churches of nearly 
every rank. A reflection of their preeminence 
in this respect is naturally enough visible in 
French Flanders. 

" The Descent from the Cross," attributed 
to Rubens, appears likely enough to be a 
genuine master, but it has been so roughly re- 
stored by overpainting, that it is to-day of 
impaired value. 

St. Omer, among all the group of northeast 
France, presents a true Gothic example in its 
great Basilique de Notre Dame, and it is a 
pity that its further development was along 
lines which indicate a trend, at least, toward 
debasement. This is plainly to be noted in the 
tracery of the lower and clerestory windows 
of nave and aisles. 

Its enormous tower covers nearly the entire 
western end of nave and aisles, in much the 
same way as those of some of the fortified 
churches of the south. Its Gothic is of the 
true perpendicular style, however, and, with 
the general grand proportions of the build- 
ing? gives that immensity and massive- 
ness which is associated only with a church 
of the first rank. The arcs-boutant of the 

238 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

nave are hardly deserving of mention as 
such, though they are manifestly sturdy 
props which perform their functions in per- 
haps as efficacious a manner as many more 
graceful and delicate specimens elsewhere. 
There is just a suggestion of a central tower, 
which, as is often the case in France, has 
dwindled to a mere cupola, if it had ever pre- 
viously grown to a greater height. The tran- 
septs are of imposing dimensions, that on the 
south having an enormous rose of perhaps 
thirty-five feet in diameter, with an elabo- 
rately carved portal below, which contains a 
" Last Judgment " in the tympanum. The 
choir, chevet, and chapels, while existent to a 
visible and very beautiful degree, are some- 
what overshadowed by the great size of the 
transepts. There is this to be said, however: 
that the choir, a restoration of our own day, 
presents, as to style, the type of Gothic purity 
at its height. It has five radiating chapels, not 
including that of Notre Dame des Miracles, 
which adjoins the south transept and contains 
innumerable votive tablets. For the rest, ex- 
cept for the fact that the interior partakes 
of a mere collection of curios and relics, it is 
in general no less imposing in its proportions 
than the exterior. The clerestory windows, 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

however, are of ill proportions for so grand 
a structure, being short and squat; and here, 
as elsewhere throughout the building, is to be 
found only modern glass. 

The great bell of the western tower weighs 
8,500 kilos. 

Chief among the notable accessories and 
reliques is the monolithic tomb of St. Erkem- 
bode, bishop of the one-time see of Therou- 
anne, period 725-37. The sarcophagus itself, 
dating from the same century, was brought 
here from the original site. The tomb of St. 
Omer was restored in the thirteenth century 
and shows a remarkable sculptured group of 
Christ, the Virgin, and St. John, called the 
" Great God of Therouanne." It was saved 
from the ruin of the church at Therouanne, 
which was destroyed with the greater part of 
the town in 1533 by Charles V., in revenge for 
the " loss of three bishoprics," as history states. 
At this time the sees of St. Omer and Bou- 
logne were founded. 

The near-by Palace of Justice, built by 
Mansart in 1680 and enlarged for its present 
use in 1840, was the former Episcopal Palace. 

St. Omer has also two other grand churches, 
St. Sepulchre, of the fourteenth century, and 
the ruins of St. Bertin (i 326-- 1520), which, 

240 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

before the Revolution, with St. Ouen at 
Rouen, and the collegiate church at San Quen- 
tin, was reckoned as one of the most beautiful 
Gothic abbeys in France. To-day it is a mag- 
nificent ruin, its huge tower (built in 143 1) 
and portions of the nave and crossing being all 
that remain. It was considered the finest 
church in the Low Countries, and for size, 
purity, and uniformity of style it ranked with 
the best of its contemporaries. 



241 



V 

ST. VAAST D'ARRAS 

The capital of ancient Flanders was re- 
moved from Arras to Ghent when Artois was 
ceded to France, and thus it was that the city 
became French, as it were, but slowly, its Low 
Country traditions and customs clinging 
closely to it until a late day. The former 
Cathedral of Notre Dame ranked as a grand 
example of the ogival style of the fourteenth 
century, in which it was built, and gave to 
the city of the " tapestry makers " the distinc- 
tion of possessing a church composed of much 
that was best of the architecture of a fast 
growing art. Such was the mediaeval rank to 
which the cathedral at Arras had attained. 
The new Cathedral of St. Vaast, dating from 
1755 to 1833, is of the Grecian style of temple 
building, little suited to the needs of a Chris- 
tian church. The crucial plan consecrated 
by catholic usages of centuries is not however 
wholly abandoned. There is something of a 

242 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

suggestion of the Latin cross in its design, but 
its abside faces toward the southeast rather 
than due south, with its principal entrance to 
the northwest, a sufficiently unusual arrange- 
ment, where most French churches are duly 
orientated, to be remarked, particularly as 
there is little that can be said in praise of the 
structure. The interior follows the general 
plan of the Corinthian order; the windows, 
neither numerous nor of sufficiently ample 
dimensions to well serve their purpose, num- 
ber nine only in the choir, and five on each 
side of the nave. 

There are, to the abside, seven collateral 
chapels, some of which contain passable sculp- 
tured monuments, removed from the old 
abbey of St. Vaast, a foundation erected in the 
sixth century and reconstructed by Cardinal 
de Rohan in 1754. The remains of the old 
abbey buildings have been built around and 
incorporated in the present Episcopal Palace, 
the extensive Musee, and Bibliotheque; and 
are situated immediately to the right of the 
fagade of the cathedral. 

The grisaille glass seen in the interior is 
unusual, but mediocre in the extreme. 

There are, however, some good statues in 
white marble in the Chapelle de St. Vaast, 

243 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

while in another chapel, given by Cardinal 
de la Tour d'Auvergne, is one equally good 
of Charles Borromee. 

There are four great statues at the extremi- 
ties of the transepts, representing the four 
evangelists; and three others in the choir, of 
Faith, Hope, and Charity. 

In the north transept, also, are two trip- 
tychs of the Flemish school, by Bellegambe, 
a native of Douai (1528). 

The Abbe Bourasse, in his charming work 
on the cathedrals of France, says, plainly, and 
without fear or favour: "We have tried to 
speak impartially of all species of architec- 
ture — but why do we not admire the Cathe- 
dral of Arras? It is against all traditions of 
' noire art catholiquef We contend that this 
is not good. What, say you, can we praise? 
It is a great work — of the stone-mason; you 
should study it from some distance. It is 
without life, without movement, without dig- 
nity." 

Whatever may be the faults of its cathe- 
dral. Arras is, nevertheless, an interesting city, 
— modernized, to be sure, by boulevards laid 
out along the old fortifications. The Citadel 
of Vauban (1670), called ironically " la belle 
inutile^^^ may be classed as a worthless, if not 

244 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

wholly unpicturesque, ruin, though ranking, 
when built, as among the most wonderful for- 
tifications of the times. The wave of Renais- 
sance which swept northward has left its in- 
eradicable marks here. The Hotel de Ville is 
a remarkable specimen of that art of overload- 
ing ornament upon a square hulk, and making 
it look like a wedding-cake; though, truth to 
tell, coming upon it after the chilliness of the 
cathedral itself, it is a cheerful antidote. Dat- 
ing from 1 510, at which time was built the 
curious Gothic fagade of seven arches, each 
different as to size and spring. The added 
wings in elaborate Renaissance are of the late 
sixteenth century and rank among the most 
effective examples of the style in France. A 
belfry surmounts all, 240 feet in height, 
the '' joyeuse '' of which weighs nearly nine 
tons. 

Arras may perhaps be most revered for its 
tapestries, its workers taking rank with those 
of the famous manufactories at Paris and 
Beauvais. Indeed, it would appear as though 
experts knew not to which of these three cen- 
tres to assign precedence, both Arras and 
Paris claiming the honour of having set up 
the first looms. It is an ancient art, as the 
work of craftsmen goes, and more than one 

245 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

writer who has studied deeply the fascinating 
intricacies of haute and basse lisse, of colour, 
texture, design, and what not, has not hesitated 
to proclaim the city as having been the grand- 
est centre of tapestry-making which the world 
has ever known; and regret can but be uni- 
versal that it came to an end when its citizens 
were put to the sword by Louis XI. 



246 




VI 



ST. ETIENNE DE TOUL 



Annexed to France, in company with Metz 
and Verdun, in 1556, Toul, situated on the left 
bank of the Moselle, is to-day ranked as a 
fortress of the first order. " Can be seen in 
two hours " — such is the description usually 
given by the guide-books to the city which 

247 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

contains, in its one-time Cathedral St. Etienne, 
an example which, with respect to the deco- 
rative tracery of its fagade savants have de- 
clared the equal even of Reims. 

One of the three former bishoprics of Lor- 
raine, Toul is none too ample to merit the cog- 
nomen of a large town. It once held within 
its walls, beside the Cathedral, the Church of 
St. Gengoult, and several parish churches 
and monasteries. Shorn to-day of some of 
these dignities, with its bishopric removed to 
Nancy, it ranks as a military and strategic 
stronghold rather than a centre of churchly 
domination. Since Metz and Strasbourg were 
given over to the Germans, Toul's former 
fortress has been greatly strengthened. 

The cathedral itself may truly be said to 
bear the characteristics of both the German 
and French manner of building, the western 
or later end being a superb front, after the 
French manner, and the easterly or earlier end 
having a simple apse and long narrow win- 
dows, in the German fashion. A comparison 
has been made by Professor Freeman between 
the western fagade of this church and Notre 
Dame de Reims. He says, " We are daring 
enough to think that, simply as a design, 
the west front of Toul outdoes that of Reims ; 

248 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

though it will be hardly needful to prove 
that, as a whole, Reims far outdoes that 
of Toul." Quite noncommittal, to be sure, 
as was this charming writer's way; but, 
of itself, a sort of preparation to the 
observer for the beauties which he is to be- 
hold. Here is the case of a superb richness 
having been added to a plainer body, and 
by no means inharmoniously done. The gable 
is nearly perfect as to its juxtaposition. The 
towers are higher in proportion than at Reims, 
giving the effect of being the finished thing as 
they stand, though lacking spires or pinnacles. 
The walls are of those just proportions in rela- 
tion to the window piercings which is again 
French, as contrasted with a neighbouring 
example at Metz, where the reverse is the case. 

The city was the seat of a bishop as early 
as the sixth century, and its government was 
under his control until 1261, when it became 
a free commune. Finally it was conquered 
by Henry IL, and its future assured to 
France by the Treaty of Westphalia. 

The cathedral dates in part from Roman- 
esque remains of the tenth century, but its 
entire interior arrangements were much bat- 
tered during the Revolution. 

The choir and transept are of the best of 
249 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

thirteenth-century building, while the nave 
and side aisles are of the century following. 
Two towers, which flank the magnificent 
fagade, rise for nearly two hundred and fifty 
feet, and are the work of Jacquemin de Com- 
mercy in the fifteenth century. Adjoining the 
right aisles are the very beautiful Gothic clois- 
ters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 
They form a rectangular enclosure, 225 feet 
by 165 feet, and are made up of twenty-four 
sections of four arches, each with clustered 
columns. 

A fine sculptured altarpiece, " The Adora- 
tion of the Shepherds," is in the Chapelle de 
la Creche, entered from the cloister. 

The present H6tel-de-Ville was formerly 
the bishop's palace. 



250 




■>''^^,. 






VII 



ST. ETIENNE, CHALONS - SUR - MARNE 



Chalons is perhaps first of all famed as the 
scene of Attila's great defeat in the fifth cen- 
tury, one of the world's fifteen decisive battles. 

The Cathedral of St. Etienne is not usually 
considered to be a remarkable structure; but 
it is thoroughly typical and characteristic of a 
locale, which stamps it at once with a mark 
of genuineness and sincerity. Of early primi- 
tive Gothic in the main, it shares interest to- 
day with the four other churches of the city, 
not overlooking Notre Dame de TEpine, some 

251 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

five miles distant to the northward, one of the 
most perfectly designed and appointed late 
Gothic churches which the world has ever 
known. It has been called a " miniature 
cathedral," using the term, it may be supposed, 
in the sense of referring only to a magnifi- 
cently ornate church. It is indeed worth a 
pilgrimage thither to see this true gem of 
architecture in a wholly undefiled countrified 
setting. 

The Cathedral at Chalons-sur-Marne fol- 
lows somewhat the traditions of the German 
manner of building, at least so far as a certain 
plainness and lack of ornate decoration in the 
main body of the church is concerned; like- 
wise in the arrangement of its towers, which 
lie to the eastward of the transepts; and 
further with respect to its decidedly Teutonic 
arrangement of the rounded columns, or, 
more properly, pillars, of its nave. 

In general this thirteenth-century church 
is in the best style of its era ; but the west front 
presents an incongruous seventeenth-century 
addition in the whilom classical style of that 
day, bad as to its art, and apparently badly 
welded into conjunction with the older por- 
tion. The aisles and clerestory windows are 
of the later decorated period of Gothic, and 

252 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

present, whether viewed from without or from 
within, an exceedingly fine appearance. 

Probably the finest and most pleasing im- 
pression of the whole structure is that obtained 
of the interior, with its pillars of nave and 
choir, of the massive order made familiar in 
the Rhine churches. A reasonable share of 
twelfth to sixteenth century glass is still left 
as its portion, and the general arrangement of 
the choir, prolonged, as it is, well into the 
nave, gives a certain majesty to this portion of 
the church which is perhaps not warranted 
when we take into consideration that it must 
perforce dwarf the nave itself. The arrange- 
ment, though not common, is by no means an 
unusual one, and it is recalled also, that it is 
so employed at Reims. 

Situated near the frontier, Chalons-sur- 
Marne has ever been subject to that inquietude 
which usually befalls a border city. German 
influences have ever been noticeable, and, even 
to-day, the significant fact is to be noted that 
a cure will hear confessions in German, and 
that services are held in that tongue on " Sat- 
urdays in St. Joseph's Chapel." 

The Episcopal Palace, behind the cathe- 
dral, contains a collection of some sixty paint- 
ings, the gift, in 1864, of the Abbe Joannes. 




jg^ '""' 'i';;vv|!{i»i " "-if'/i/^v^"^^ ■ 






VIII 



ST. DIE 



St. Die gets its name, by the corruption of 
Dieudonne, from St. Deodatus, who founded 
a monastery here in the seventh century. It 
was built, as was many another great cathe- 
dral, in accordance with the custom of erect- 
ing a church over the body or relic of a saint 
whom it was especially desired to honour; us- 
ually one of local importance, a patron or a 
devotee. 

The town is perhaps the most inaccessible 
and " out-of-the-way " place which harbours 

254 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

a cathedral in all northern France. We might 
perhaps except St. Pol-de-Leon and Treguier 
in Brittany, neither of which is on a railway, 
whereas St. Die is, but at the very end. When 
you get there and want to go on, not back, you 
simply journey on foot, or awheel if you can 
find a conveyance, and take up with another 
" loose end " of railway some fifteen miles 
away, which will take you southward, should 
you be going that way. If not, there appears 
to be nothing for it, but to retrace your steps 
whence you came. 

The cathedral (locally " La Grande 
Eglise," it only having been made a cathedral 
so recently as 1777) has a fine Romanesque 
nave of the eleventh century, with choir and 
aisles of good Gothic, after the accepted Rhine 
manner of building. 

The portal, of red sandstone, is of inferior 
thirteenth-century workmanship, with statues 
of Faith and Charity on either side. The 
facade is flanked by two square towers. 

The interior is curiously arranged with a 
cordon of sculpture, high in the vaulting. 
The capitals of the pillars are likewise orna- 
mented with highly interesting and ornately 
sculptured capitals. The choir, as is most 
usual, is the masterpiece of the collection, the 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

windows, in particular, being of the purest 
ogival style. 

In the first chapel, on the right, is a paint- 
ing, " The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," and 
behind the choir is an ancient work commem- 
orative of '' Le Peste de St. Die/' 



2^6 










W 
Pi 
< 



IX 

ST. LAZARE D'AUTUN 

This ancient episcopal city has ever been 
devoted to the cause of Christianity. " No- 
where," says a French historian, " has the 
Church enjoyed more repute than here." 
The Dukes of Burgundy, its bishops and peo- 
ple alike, joined in a fervour of labour and 
zeal to assure its permanence and progress. 
In addition, the Gallo-Roman remains point 
to a former city of proud attainments. The 
fine Roman walls, beautifully jointed, sans 
cement, are distinctly traceable for a circuit 
of perhaps three miles around the city. Other 
interesting remains are two fine gateways, 
commonly referred to as triumphal arches, 
which they probably were not, the Porte 
d'Arroux and the Porte St. Andre; the ruins 
of an ampitheatre; and a tower assigned to a 
former temple of Minerva. All these, and 
more, are found inside the old walls; while, 
without, are remains of an aqueduct, of a 

257 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

tower dedicated to Janus, and a Roman bridge 
crossing the river Torenai. It may be inter- 
esting for an Englishman to recall that the 
Bishop of Autun, who often presided over 
the National Assembly, pleaded in vain with 
George III. for the adoption, in England, of 
the French metric system. 

During the destruction of a former build- 
ing, St. Nazaire, which at one time performed 
the functions of a cathedral, the bishops held 
their offices in the chapel of the chateau of the 
Dukes of Burgundy; but, upon the removal 
of the residence of the house of Burgundy 
to Dijon, transferred their services to the pres- 
ent edifice, which had by that time been com- 
pleted. 

The Cathedral of St. Lazare is a charm- 
ingly graceful, though not great, structure, 
mainly of the style '' ogivale premier/^ its 
early Lombard work of the nave and west 
front being of the foundation of Robert I., 
Duke of Burgundy. This vast western portal 
is encased in a great projective porch, a fea- 
ture indigenous apparently to Burgundy, and 
commonly referred to as the " Burgundian 
narthex." Following come the chapels and 
spires, of exceeding grace and beauty, of the 
third ogivale style. 

258 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The interior enrichments, like the western 
doorway, with its Romanesque sculptures, 
take rank with the best in Burgundy. The 
delicately carved rood-loft, or jube, the small 
sculptures of the choir and nave, and the flam- 
boyant chapels of the fifteenth to seventeenth 
century, challenge minute attention from 
those who would study decorative detail in 
extenso. The capitals of certain columns in 
the nave have fluted pilasters in imitation of 
the antique, but are most curiously orna- 
mented with grotesque and fantastic human 
figures on a background of foliage. 

The choir, of early pointed style, in its 
actual disposition and arrangement, may be 
included in that classification which compre- 
hends some of its more important northern 
compeers, though, as a matter of fact, it lacks 
their magnitude. Indeed, the building is one 
of the smallest cathedrals in all France. The 
exterior offers an imposing and picturesque 
ensemble, with its crocketed spire rising some 
two hundred and fifty or more feet above the 
roof-tops of the ancient city. 

Nearer inspection shows a certain incoher- 
ence of construction, particularly in reference 
to the evidences of garish crudities in the 



259 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

work done under Robert I. in 1031—76, in con- 
trast to the later pointed work. 

The doorway of the lateral southern wing 
is ornamented with a series of grossly exag- 
gerated columns, in imitation of the antique, 
with the addition of an apse, which contrast- 
ingly shows work of a late flamboyant order. 

The spire itself is the masterwork of the 
entire structure, and, unlike those which sur- 
mount many another church, appears not to 
have suffered the dangers of fire. As a fif- 
teenth-century work, it merits special men- 
tion. Rising abruptly from a heavy square 
base, the pyramid is very acute, and is orna- 
mented at the angles with foliaged crockets, 
basely called stone cauliflowers by unimagina- 
tive persons. One might say, with the gentle 
Abbe Bourasse, that the " ornamentation 
breaks into sky and cloud with an exceedingly 
agreeable effect, far beyond that of a straight 
line." The inconsistency lies only in the jux- 
taposition of the two western transition towers, 
which have hardly enough of the Gothic in 
them to merit the name. 

The lower windows of the nave are of good 
flamboyant style, with a sort of Romanesque 
triforium, and a simple round-headed win- 
dow in each bay of the clerestory, which is 

260 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the more poor in treatment and effect in that 
it holds no notable glass. There are none of 
those distinctly northern accessories, the great 
rose windows, and the whole reeks of dis- 
tinctly a milder atmosphere. There is a lux- 
uriance of decoration in the many chapels of 
different epochs. 

The exterior, in general, is of excessive sim- 
plicity; but, if it is not to be placed among 
those cathedrals and churches accredited the 
most notable and most beautiful, it will, at 
least, take rank as one of the most ancient to 
be seen to-day, and has the further benefit of a 
glorious environment and association with the 
past. 



261 




ST. BENIGNE DE DIJON 



The power and wealth of the Dukes of 
Burgundy, whose influence extended north- 
ward to the Netherlands, where they often 
held court at Ghent and Bruges, were, in a 
way, responsible for the opulence and splen- 
dour of the life of the day. So, too, Burgun- 
dian architecture became a term synonymous 
for the amplitude and grandeur with which 
many of its institutions were endowed. 

The reign of Philippe le Bon, with that of 
Charles the Bold, the most ambitious prince 
who ever graced his line, was the Augustan 

262 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

age of Burgundian art. It was the dream of 
the latter to reincarnate the old Burgundian 
kingdom by annexing Lorraine and subduing 
the advancing Swiss Confederacy, an ambi- 
tion which failed, like many others as, or 
more, worthy. The conquered duke was 
killed at Nancy, and was finally buried in 
Notre Dame at Bruges. 

The Cathedral of St. Benigne is an out- 
growth from the old abbey church, from 
which the Italian monk, Guillaume, set forth 
to found that remarkable series of monaster- 
ies in Normandy and Brittany. It is said, 
too, that he crossed the Channel, and had a 
large share in the works which were erected 
at that period in the south of England. The 
bishop's throne has been established in this 
church only since the Revolution, caused by 
the destruction of his former cathedral. The 
early foundations of the old abbey date far 
back into antiquity, but the present cathedral 
dates only from the thirteenth century. Com- 
monly considered as of Gothic style, it is in 
every way more suggestive of the late Ro- 
mano-Byzantine type, or at least of the early 
transition. There is, to be sure, no poverty 
of style; but there is an air of stability and 
firmness of purpose on the part of its builders, 

263 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

rather than any attempt to either launch off 
into something new or untried, or even to 
consistently remain in an old groove. 

As a fact, it is not a very grand building. 
Its choir is small, and its transepts short. In 
its plan, at least, it resembles the Byzantine 
form much more than the elongated Gothic, 
where every proportion seems to reach out to 
its utmost extent. 

The west fagade is truly fine in the disposi- 
tion of its parts and arrangements. It sug- 
gests, more than anything, a traditional local 
style, favouring nothing else to any remark- 
able degree except the German solidity so 
often to be noted in eastern France. The 
towers are firmly set with unf requent pointed 
openings. The central portal and vestibule 
are deep, and rich with a sculptured " Mar- 
tyrdom of St. Peter " and a delightfully grace- 
ful arcade just above the portal arch, and an- 
other crossing the gable and joining the tow- 
ers in a singularly effective manner. A some- 
what heavy but rich pointed window of three 
lights, surmounted by a quatrefoil rose, with 
a slight needle-like spire which rises just 
above the gable, completes the ensemble. 

The earlier work, seen at its best in the 
interior, is that of the choir and transepts, 

264 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

where again the distinguishing features are 
local. In the transepts the arches open di- 
rectly on the side chapels, the southern arm 
being gorgeous with brilliant glass. The 
windows of choir and transepts throughout 
are richly traceried and set. The choir itself 
is destitute of either ambulatory or chapels. 

A lantern is placed at the crossing, sup- 
ported by gracefully foliaged shafts. 

The nave is of a much later period, and is 
not of the richness of the portion lying to the 
eastward. The windows of the clerestory, in 
particular, will not be considered of the ex- 
cellence of those of either transept or choir. 

The south tower encloses the tombs of Jean 
sans Peur and Philippe le Hardi. The crypt 
contains the tomb of St. Benignus. 



^65 




NOTRE DAME DE SENLIS 



" Truly rural " is a term which may well 
be applied to the situation of Senlis, the an- 
cient Civitas Sylvanectensium of the Romans. 
Quaint and attractive to the eye is the entrance 
to the town from the railway, with its low- 
lying roofs, over which tower the spires of 
the ancient Cathedral of Notre Dame and the 
Church of St. Pierre. It forms a heteroge- 
neous mass of stone, to be sure, and one which 
looks little enough, at first glance, like the 
delicate and graceful cathedral which makes 
up the mass in part. It is, in reality, a con- 

266 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

fused jumble of towers and turrets which 
meets the eye, and it takes some little acquaint- 
ance with the details thereof to separate the 
cathedral from the adjacent church. 

The proximity of the sees of Beauvais, 
Amiens, and Paris perhaps accounts for the 
lack of importance attached to this cathedral. 
As for the structure itself, among the minor 
cathedrals of France, Senlis, with Seez and 
Countances, must ever rank as the peers 
of that order, with respect to the grace and 
beauty of their spires. It may be doubted if 
even the spires of Chartres are to be consid- 
ered as more beautiful than the diminutive 
single example to be seen here, particularly 
when grouped with its surrounding environ- 
ment. Individually, as well, its grace and 
beauty might even take that rank. The de- 
marcation between the base of the tower and 
the gently dwindling spire is almost entirely 
eliminated, without the slightest tendency 
toward debasement in the steeple, which too 
often is merely a series of superimposed, 
meaningless, and unbeautiful details. Latter- 
day builders, who want a model for the spire 
of a moderate-sized Gothic church, could, it 
would seem, hardly do better than to make 
a replica of this graceful example. 

267 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

In its fagade, the Cathedral of Notre Dame 
de Senlis partakes largely of the characteris- 
tics of the primitive lowland types, reminis- 
cent, at least, of Noyon or Soissons, and, as 
such, it may properly be considered and com- 
pared with them. 

The transepts of the north and south are 
not grand members, but they are compact and 
graceful, and the fagade of the southern arm 
is of a highly ornate character, bespeaking a 
wealth of ambition, if not of ability, on the 
part of the architect. 

The interior, in spite of the lack of sculp- 
tured ornament, shows no paucity of style, 
and, except that it is of the bijou variety, 
might take rank at once as representative of 
Gothic style at its best. Under these condi- 
tions, the nave is naturally confined, and lacks 
a certain grandeur both as to width and 
height. 

The choir is of true, though not lofty, pro- 
portions, the aisles appearing perhaps too low, 
if anything, for the height of the nave, which 
otherwise appears exceedingly generous with 
respect to the extent of its triforium and 
clerestory. 

The transepts, though shallow, are pos- 
sessed of unusually amplified aisles, there be- 

268 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ing, as a matter of fact, two in that portion 
which adjoins the nave on the west, a suffi- 
ciently unusual arrangement to warrant com- 
ment. The rose windows of the transepts 
have graceful design and good framing, 
though the glass is not of the splendour which 
we associate with the most pleasing examples 
seen elsewhere. 



269 



XII 

ST. ETIENNE DE MEAUX 

To the eastward of Paris, one first finds the 
true country atmosphere at Meaux, famous 
for its bishops, its grist-mills, and its generally 
charming environment. 

The picturesque little city is situated on 
the Marne, some thirty miles from Paris, 
amid a verdure which, if not luxuriant, is, 
at least, a " fringe of green " that is appealing 
alike to local pride, and to the artist or stran- 
ger within the gates. It is an ancient bishop- 
ric (now suffragan of Paris), founded in 
375 A. D. 

The Cathedral of Saint Etienne de Meaux 
is called by the French the " Child of Ami- 
ens," and it would have all the dignity of its 
mother had but the nave received the same 
development as the choir. Its general dimen- 
sions are restrained, and it shows in no way 
any remarkable architectural ensemble; but, 
for all that, its power to please is none the less 

270 



Th§ Cathedrals of Northern France 

great Lacking a certain symmetry, in itself 
no great fault, the exterior gives the impres- 
sion of being to-day much less grand and 
imposing than was really planned. Battled 
by wind and weather, its outer walls have 
that scarred and aged look which is a beauty 
in itself. There are two towers, one of which 
is unfinished and capped with an ugly and 
angular slate roof, so low that it hardly exists 
at all, so far as forming a distinct feature of 
the fagade is concerned. Its companion, how- 
ever, rises boldly and in graceful lines to a 
generous height above the gable. 

The interior plan is regular and simple, 
with a nave of five bays, the first two from 
the west being divided into the infrequent 
quadruple range of openings, while the re- 
mainder consist of the usual triforium and 
clerestory only. The double aisles of the nave 
are of unusual height, in order to admit of this 
double range of openings. 

The transepts, if transepts they can be con- 
sidered, are very shallow, being merely .the 
depth of the double aisles of the nave and 
choir, and are bare and unadorned so far as 
any notable sculpture or glass is concerned, 
though the arched windows which hold the 



%^\ 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

plain glass are of grand proportions and ex- 
cellent design as to their framing. 

The triforium, throughout, is an arcaded 
cloister-like effect of slight arches, supported 
by slender columns, with a series of glazed 
windows behind. It would be a notable and 
wholly charming arrangement were the glass 
of these windows rich in colour, or even old 
in design. 

There is an air of singular lightness, if not 
actually of grace, throughout the entire nave 
and choir, superinduced, perhaps, by the re- 
cent whitening and pointing of the masonry; 
but the not infrequent bulging piers, particu- 
larly those nearest to the transept crossing, 
give a suggestion of ungainliness if not of 
actual insecurity. 

The columns of the choir, supporting a 
series of firm and gracefully poised arches, 
are of unusual height, something over forty 
feet, it would appear, — producing a har- 
mony of form and elegance which again re- 
minds one of Amiens. 

There are here copies of the nine Raphael 
tapestry cartoons, the originals of which are 
preserved at South Kensington, also of fres- 
coes by Guido Reni and Domenichino. 

The chief artistic, if not architectural, 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

charm to be seen within the purlieus of the 
cathedral is that of the ancient chapter-house, 
across a narrow way, to the right of the church 
itself. This gem of mediaeval building is per- 
haps not remarkable as to any of the prin- 
ciples which it sets forth in its manner of 
construction, but it takes one back some hun- 
dreds of years, a sheer plunge far beyond the 
age of the most prominent features of the main 
church, and gives a thrill somewhat akin to 
the emotion which one feels when he comes 
across a single leaf torn from an old illumi- 
nated manuscript. This charming ruin, for 
it is hardly more than that, being a mere 
lumber-room, shows in the weathered look of 
its covered stairway nearly all of the qualities 
which the painter loves to depict, — colour, 
texture, and, above all, that indescribable 
charm which artistic folk, and others who can 
see as they do, call life. 

Clearly, the Cathedral of St. Etienne de 
Meaux, as an interesting shrine, may be 
classed well at the head of the secondary 
cathedrals of the third Gothic period. 



^73 




[^-jCA THEDRALp^r ^-^g-^ _OF SAINT; *'"^KRE^^_£j^^jM^ 



XIII 



ST. PIERRE DE TROYES 



To the thorough student of English history, 
Troyes is perhaps first recalled as being the 
birthplace of the treaty ^' decreeing for ei^ef 
a common sovereign for England and France/' 
a treaty which, it is minded, " stood no while." 
Again, some dubious antiquary has put it for- 
ward as the home of that variety of weights 
" which are not avoirdupois." 

The Counts of Champagne had, in the once 
well-walled city, both a castle and a palace. 
Olden-time houses, good Gothic woodwork 

274 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

and Renaissance stonework, are here in abun- 
dance; also, according to the authority of Fer- 
gusson, a well-nigh perfect Gothic church in 
St. Urbain; likewise a great cathedral, — 
rather ugly as to its general outline. All 
these are possessed by Troyes, and to-day the 
reminders and remains of each and all are 
exceedingly vivid and substantial. 

Certain cathedrals of France show plainly 
the different phases and developments of the 
art of building through which they have 
passed; others indicate little, if any, deviation 
from a certain accepted style. St. Pierre de 
Troyes is of the first category. Here is Gothic 
in all its variations. Its environment, too, is 
characteristic of the many varying moods 
through which its constituency has passed. 
A truly mediaeval city in the picturesqueness 
of its older portions, Troyes is famed alike in 
affairs of Church and State. The dimensions 
of the Cathedral at Troyes, which approach 
those of the grand group, and the general 
majesty of its interior only further this opin- 
ion. 

The main body covers the none too fre- 
quent arrangement of five aisles, which, fol- 
lowing through the transept, continue, with 
the double pair on each side, to likewise 

275 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

girdle the choir. The splendour of immensity 
is further enhanced by its large windows, in- 
cluding two rose openings set with old glass, 
and the general richness of its sculptured dec- 
orations. The abside of the choir is ranked 
among the best Gothic works of the time. 

The choir, begun in 1206, is composed of 
thirteen arcades, symbolical of Christ and the 
twelve apostles, from the chief of whom the 
cathedral takes its name. The windows of 
the triforium are large and divided into four 
compartments. The general disposition of 
the choir, with its radiating chapels, is superb; 
and it is exactly this satisfying, though per- 
haps undefinable, quality that is ofttimes lack- 
ing in an originally well-planned work which 
fails to inspire one. The choir contains an 
iron grille of the thirteenth century, of very 
beautiful workmanship, and is surrounded by 
five hexagonally sided chapels. 

The principal portion of the nave, erected 
in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth cen- 
turies, interrupted now and again by war and 
civil distractions, bears indelible impress of 
its continued centuries of growth. 

The principal fagade of the fifteenth cen- 
tury — accredited to one Martin Chambige 
and erected just after the nave took form — 

276 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

is of the richness of Gothic only just previous 
to its decline. There are three portals, which 
are bare of sculptured figures, as indeed is 
the whole west front. In arrangement, it re- 
sembles the frontispieces of certain of the 
grand cathedrals, and, though lacking their 
sculptured ornateness, is thoroughly satisfying 
as a decorative frontage. Had it been exe- 
cuted fifty years later, it would be hard to 
imagine to what depths its lines might not 
have fallen. As it is, the upper ranges of the 
tower suggest the thought. The windows of 
the aisle and of the clerestory of the nave, 
when viewed from the exterior, are grandly 
traceried and gracefully coupled by a series 
of light, firm buttresses, which rise, only from 
the gables of the lower set, over the low-lying 
roof to the spring of the arch of the upper 
range. St. Pierre de Troyes suggests, in a 
mild way, the " sheer glass walls " so fre- 
quently referred to by adulous French critics 
when chanting the praises of the highly devel- 
oped lightness of their indigenous style. This 
is further accentuated when one notes the 
glazed triforium, a decorative feature remi- 
niscent of that at Seez, Nevers, Tours, and 
St. Ouen at Rouen. 

Troyes is one of those prominent cathedral 
277 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

cities of Catholic France whereof the church- 
man deplores the fact that its men are not of 
the churchgoing class, and that its congrega- 
tions are mostly of the fair sex. Be this as it 
may, except in Brittany, where the whole pop- 
ulation appears unusually devout, the stric- 
ture is probably true in a great measure of all 
of the north of France; and, be it here said, 
recent political edicts will doubtless not tend 
to increase the propaganda of piety. 

The north gable, with its portal and rose 
window, is of the fifteenth century, and, with 
the " lustrous rose " of the south transept, 
forms a pair of brilliant jewels which are 
hardly excelled elsewhere, not even by the 
encircled splendour of the forty-foot openings 
at Reims and Amiens, the equally extensive 
one of the north transept at Rouen, or, most 
splendid of all, the galaxy at Chartres. These 
marvels of French ingenuity and invention 
are nowhere more splendidly proportioned or 
embellished than at Troyes, and are equally 
attractive viewed from either within or with- 
out. 

The chief " tresor ^* consists of a series of 
wonderful mediaeval enamels. 



278 




" tCATHEDRALJ J. \^ OF •<• SAINT -i- ETI&NNE >$< | ^ j >$* SENS :Ai 

XIV 



ST. ETIENNE DE SENS 



Says the Abbe Bourasse, " One of the 
most beautiful titles to glory in a church is the 
antiquity of its foundation,'^ hence, most 
French antiquaries who have written upon the 
subject of the celebrated Cathedral of St. 
Etienne of Sens have enlarged upon its 
'' glorious antiquity." To prove or verify the 
fact as to whether St. Savinien or St. Potentien 
was the first to preach Christian religion here 
would be a laborious undertaking. Evidences 
aiid knowledge of Roman works are not want- 

279 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ing, and early Christian edifices of the Ro- 
manesque order must naturally have followed. 
One learns that an early church on this site 
was entirely destroyed by fire in 970, and that 
a new edifice had progressed so far that it was 
dedicated in 997. This, in turn, was mostly 
rebuilt, and, two hundred years later (1168), 
took the form of the present cathedral. It 
was completed, in a rather plain and heavy 
ogival style, under the capable direction of the 
William who came to Canterbury, in response 
to a call, to rebuild the choir of that English 
church in 1174. ^^ is this link, and possibly 
a sight of the vestments of A Becket, now pre- 
served among the "" tresor " of Sens, that binds 
its memory with English contemporary life. 
Whatever may be the contentions waged as to 
the claims of English Gothic, it is universally 
and unimpeachably admitted that Guillaume 
de Sens rebuilt that famous choir of Canter- 
bury, and built it well, and of a newer order 
of design than any previous work in England. 
So let it stand. 

Taken by itself, the Cathedral at Sens is a 
high example of Christian art. When, how- 
ever, it is compared with the grand group, it 
is relegated immediately to the second rank. 
The interior, far more than the exterior, shows 

280 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

a visible disparity of unified style. Romano- 
Byzantine, transition, and ogival are all found 
in the nave and choir, with the flamboyant, of 
the fifteenth century, in the ornamental 
tracery of the windows of the transepts. 

Some visible remains of the earlier struc- 
ture are shown, built into the eleventh century 
walls. Of the same period are other evidences 
of a former erection, to be noted in the aisles. 
The transept and the greater part of the nave 
are of the century following, and of the early 
thirteenth, and finally the three arcades, by 
which the nave is entered, are something very 
akin to the full-blown Renaissance of the fif- 
teenth century. 

The general plan is symmetrical, and severe, 
only the twenty chapels being ungracefully 
disposed. Ten of these are in the choir and 
ten in the nave. For the antiquary, versed in 
religious archaeology, the Cathedral of Sens 
would appear, from the very inconsistencies 
and exuberance of its style, to be of great inter- 
est. The fragments that remain of its former 
magnificent glass, the sculptured monuments, 
and the tombs and curiosities of the '' tresor,'' 
which escaped Revolutionary spoliation, all 
combine in a glorious attraction for one who 
has the time and inclination to delve into the 

281 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

reminiscence of history and association of a 
past age. 

The glass of the choir, and of the chapel of 
St. Savinien, is of the thirteenth century. The 
colour is exceedingly brilliant, lively, and har- 
monious, with the iridescence of a mosaic of 
precious stones. 

The sixteenth-century glass, none the less 
than the framing itself, of the grand rose win- 
dows of the north and south transepts, is 
equally remarkable as to design and colour. 
The former represents the " Glorification of 
Jesus Christ," and the latter '^ Events in the 
Life of St. Etienne." 

The ''tresor'^ of the cathedral is very 
numerous and is considered the richest in all 
France. The most notable are a reliquary of 
gold, set with sapphires and pearls, containing 
a fragment of the True Cross, given by Charle- 
magne in the year 800; ' four magnificent tap- 
estries of the time of Charles V., representing 
the "Adoration of the Magi;" and the pon- 
tifical robes of St. Thomas (a Becket), chasu- 
ble, aube, stole, manipule, cordon, two mitres, 
and two collars. This courageous archbishop, 
persecuted by Henry II., took refuge in Sens 
in 1 162. An elaborate tomb (of the eighteenth 
century) , by Constant, is the mausoleum of the 
Dauphin, father of Louis XVI. 

282 



PART VI 
Western Normandy and Brittany 



INTRODUCTORY 

Most people who have read Ruskin, and 
most people have done so — in the past, will 
undoubtedly concur with his dictum that 
Rouen's ^' associated Norman cities," Bayeux, 
Caen, Coutances, St. Lo, Lisieux, and Dieppe, 
run the entire gamut of mediaeval architec- 
tural notes; or, as Ruskin himself has put it, 
" from the Romanesque to the flamboyant." 
He might well have added, the Renaissance 
and the pseudo-classicism of a later day. 

Beauties there are in this region, galore; and 
the examples which no longer exist, but of 
which the records tell, point to a still larger 
aggregate. 

Who thinks to-day of Coutances as of being 
a "cathedral town?" And yet, there is 
within it, as to the general effect of situation 
and the magnitude of its towering pinnacles, 
an edifice which perhaps outranks all but the 

285 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

very greatest. Most likely no thought is given 
it at all, except that Coutances is somewhere 
on the railway line between Cherbourg and 
Paris, or that it is near unto Bayeux; also 
possessed of a magnificent cathedral, but 
whose greatest fame lies in a certain false 
sentiment associated with its famous tapes- 
try. Not that this great work is to be 
decried, — far from it, but the spirit with 
which it is so often viewed should be a matter 
of scorn for every broad-minded traveller. 

Lisieux, too, has a wealth of attraction for 
those who fondly admire reeking picturesque- 
ness and old timbered houses, though its 
cathedral will not please. 

Pugin could not resist depicting many of 
these delightful old houses of Lisieux in his 
book on Normandy, though, unlike Ruskin, he 
had no eye for its cathedral; most of us will 
not have. 

So much, then, as a plea for a more sincere 
and thorough appreciation of the charms of 
western Normandy. It is cheap, accessible, 
and has a practically inexhaustible store of 
treasure for the traveller or student of limited 
time or money, but who will not make of it 
the usual mere " bank-holiday " scamper. The 
same applies also to Brittany, which is treated 

286 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

elsewhere, with this proviso, that the tourist 
afoot or awheel is far better equipped than he 
who has to depend upon steam and the rail, 
two at least of Brittany's cathedrals being ^' off 
the line." 



aS7 



II 

NOTRE DAME D'EVREUX 

The Cathedral at Evreux is another of 
those edifices which gives one its best impres- 
sion when first seen upon entering the city. 
Charmingly, possibly romantically, situated, 
it lies in a shallow valley with all the pictur- 
esqueness of its varied style limned against the 
sky in truly impressionistic fashion. This 
impression, when viewed from the slight emi- 
nence by which the railway enters the town, is 
a vista of rambling roofs and a long, sloping 
street running gently down to the very foot 
of the structure, which, set about and inter- 
spersed with verdure, as it is in the spring and 
summer months, warrants one in counting his 
introduction to this charmingly attractive, 
though non-consistent, type of church, as one 
of the events which will live in memory for 
years. 

If towering spires and pinnacles were a sine 
qua non for a great and imposing architectural 

288 




Noire Dame d''Evreux 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

style, this church would at once rank as one 
of the most delightful examples extant; for 
these very features, albeit they are mostly of 
what we have come to accept as a debased 
form of art, are nevertheless possessed of a 
grandeur and magnificence which in many 
worthy examples are entirely lacking. The 
pair of western towers, of Romanesque founda- 
tion, were developed, not in what one knows as 
Gothic, but of the manifest and offensive 
pseudo-classic order. They are capped, how- 
ever, with something more akin to Moor- 
ish or an Eastern termination than Italian. 
The spire which surmounts the central 
crossing is, without question, a reminiscence 
of much that has been accepted as good 
Gothic form in the great central-towered 
English churches. Up to a certain point 
this can hardly be denied; but this rather 
weak, effeminate spire, which forms such 
an unusual attribute of a French cathedral, 
more than qualifies its right to a place in 
the first rank of spires. As for the rest of the 
exterior, it is a melange of nearly every known 
architectural style. Undeniably fine in parts, 
like " the curate's ^gg^^ if a time-worn simile 
may be permitted, it forms an ensemble which 
would preclude its ever being accorded un- 

291 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

qualified praise from even the most liberal- 
minded and optimistic enthusiast. 

By far the most coherent view to be had 
near by is that from the gardens of the Arch- 
bishop's Palace immediately to the rearward 
of the choir. Here the clipped trees, the warm 
coloured wall, along which the vines are 
trained, and what was once a canal, or moat, in 
the foreground, combine to present a singu- 
larly artistic and pleasing composition. 

The north transept, of Bishop le Veneur, is 
of the superlative degree of its era (early six- 
teenth century), bordering upon the profusion 
of splayed ornament which so soon after 
turned to dross, but standing, as it does, of 
itself, clearly defined. The gulf was finally 
crossed when, less than a half-century later, 
the incongruous west front with its ill-man- 
nered towers was built, — in itself a subject 
worth a deal of study from the artist who 
would picture graven stone, but contrasting 
unfavourably enough with the heights to 
which French ecclesiastical architecture had 
just previously soared. Here is offered the 
one unified Renaissance fagade of a French 
cathedral, welded, as it were, in unworthy 
fashion, to a fabric with which it has nothing 
in common. The stone-mason here superseded 

292 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the craftsman; and, with the termination of 
the reign of Frangois I., and following with 
that of Henry II., came the flowering rankness 
of a degenerate weed, leaving, as evidence of 
its contaminating influence in this one exam- 
ple alone, traces of nearly every classical order, 
from the simple Doric column to a hybrid 
which shall be unnamed. 

The interior presents a general array of in- 
congruities quite as remarkable as those of the 
exterior. The nave is very narrow; but the 
choir widens out perhaps a dozen feet on 
either side, adding immeasurably to an effect 
which is far more impressive than might 
otherwise be supposed. 

The nave itself shows many varieties of 
building, ranging from the Gothic of the early 
twelfth to the late fifteenth centuries; the 
lower part and the easterly bays are Roman- 
esque, or what perhaps has been popularly 
accepted as Norman, and date from 1 125 ; the 
remainder and the triforium are of a century 
later. 

The choir is of the decorated species of the 
early fourteenth century, with its arcaded tri- 
forium glazed, whereas in the nave it is with- 
out glass. The lady-chapel, of the time of 
Louis XL, shows that inevitable mark of de- 

'^9Z 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

generacy, the '' fleur-de-lys,'' in the elaborated 
tracery of the window framing. The glass 
here is, however, excellent, in effect at any 
rate, with its gorgeous figures of knights, 
angels, and peers of France, drawn with a 
masterly skill which is often lacking in even 
more precious glass. 

The chapel screens, some twenty in all, are 
wondrously turned and carved of wood. This 
leads one to venture the thought that the simi- 
lar decorative embellishments of the Renais- 
sance chateaux of the Loire country were 
slowly creeping northward, and leaving their 
impress upon the work of the ecclesiastical 
builder and decorator. Certainly, the numer- 
ous fine examples of the art of the wood- 
carver, to be seen in this cathedral, bespeak 
much for the decorative quality of wood, when 
used considerately in conjunction with stone. 

There are two rose windows, of the petal 
species, unquestionably fine as to framing, but 
leaving little space for the effect of the glass, 
which they hold only in small proportion. 

The " treasury," alone, is enclosed with 
iron bars, and a grille of graceful late flowing 
Ironwork forms the screen of the choir. Alto- 
gether the Cathedral at Evreux will be re- 



94 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

membered quite as much for its wonderful 
array of wooden and iron grilles as for any 
other of the specific details among its mass of 
general attributes. 



mmm 



Window Framing — Evreux 



295 




Notre Dame d'Alenqon 



III 



NOTRE DAME D'ALENQON 

This former capital of the duchy of the 
same name is a sleepy, countrified French 
town, with little but its reputedly valuable and 
beautiful lace to commend it to the average 
observer. 

As a cathedral town, of even secondary 
rank, it will fall far short of any preconceived 
ideas which one may be possessed of concern- 
ing it, though its Cathedral of Notre Dame is 
in many ways one of those irresistible shrines, 
which at least promise, and often fulfil, a great 
deal more than their lack of magnitude indi- 
cates. 

296 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Its fagade, lacking the conventional towers, 
advances well into the roadway, as a sort of 
forward porch ; as at Louviers near by. This 
porch is very ornate, with decorations of the 
late Gothic period of flowing tracery. 

After all, it is an incongruous sort of a build- 
ing, in that only this porch and its squat cen- 
tral tower, which is nought but a mere cupola, 
are in the least decorative. 

The nave, the choir and chevet, and chapels, 
are all of a bareness which only exaggerates 
the floridness of these other appendages. The 
nave itself is but one hundred and ten feet long^ 
and perhaps a scant thirty wide, and dates 
from the fourteenth century. It contains good 
glass of the same period, which luckily es- 
caped the spoliation of the Revolution. 

The choir is more modern, and much 
plainer in treatment, and is but fifty-five feet 
in length and of the same width as the nave. 

There are no transepts; in short, the chief 
and most interesting features of the church are 
the before mentioned details, which, unques- 
tionably bordering upon the debasement of 
Gothic art, are in every way attractive, with 
lightness and colour, if such an expression may 
be applied to gray stone. 

Certainly the play of sunlight on gracefully 
297 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

carven stone is indicative of a brilliancy which 
might be termed an effect of colour; and it is 
with respect to that quality that the west 
fagade of Notre Dame d'Alengon appeals; 
more than as an otherwise grand or even 
highly interesting structure. 



39S 




St. Pierre de Lisieux 



IV 

ST. PIERRE DE LISIEUX 

LiSlEUX, the city of the Lexavii, taken by 
Caesar and besieged by Geoffrey Plantagenet; 
its old houses; its crooked streets and pictur- 
esque decay; with its former Cathedral of St. 
Pierre (M. H.), memorable as the marriage 
place of Henry III, and Eleanor of Guienne; 
all go to make up the formula of one of the 
stock sights of Normandy. 

It is scarcely an attractive town, in spite of 
its picturesque sordidness, made the more so 
by he smoke arising from many belching 
factory chimneys. In fact, one has difficulty 
in thinking of it as a cathedral town at all; 
and, as such, it hardly claims more than a brief 
resume of its important features. A much 
more interesting, impressive, and command- 
ing church is that of St. Jacques, which at 
least has the stamp of a personality, which in 
the cathedral itself is entirely wanting, so far 
as one's latent sympathies are concerned. In 
spite of the purity of that which is Gothic in 

301 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

its fabric, it has little of that quality which 
arouses admiration, and which, regardless of 
the edict of a certain seer and prophet, is 
mostly that for which we revere a great monu- 
ment, — its power to sway us impressively. 

Mr. Ruskin has taken great pains to com- 
mend the southern portal as being '' one of 
the most quaint and pleasing doors in all Nor- 
mandy," — a non-committal enough state- 
ment, most will admit, and one with which 
we are not obliged to agree. A broader- 
minded observer would have said that the 
main body of the church presents a unity 
of design, very unusual in a mediaeval work, 
— excelled by no other example in France. 
The greater part of the nave, choir, and tran- 
septs is the work of one epoch only; and, as 
some writers have it, of one man. Bishop 
Odericus Vitalis, who died shortly after its 
completion, in the latter part of the eleventh 
century. As a style, it may be said to be either 
the last of the transition or of the very earliest 
Gothic. Certainly this is something in its 
favour; but the general charm of its imme- 
diate surroundings is lacking, and the effect of 
its interior, with the diminutive windows of 
the nave and clerestory, does not tend to sat- 
isfy, or even gratify, one with the sense of pleas- 

302 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ure which perhaps its more creditable features 
deserve. These are not wholly wanting; for, 
of course, one must not forget that doorway 
of Ruskin's nor the quite idyllic proportions 
of the nave with its uniform massive pillars. 

The lady-chapel was founded in the fif- 
teenth century by the rascally Cauchon, 
Bishop of Beauvais, who, with his brother, 
prelate of Winchester, so gleefully burned 
Joan of Arc. This much he did in expiation 
of ^' his false judgment,'' though, except as a 
memorial of his significant remorse, the chapel 
itself would hardly be remarkable. The clere- 
story of nave and choir is considerably later. 
The transepts vary as to their windows, and 
the triforium arches are here at a different 
level from those in the nave. 

The general exterior view of the cathedral 
is hardly satisfactory from any point. On 
three sides it is almost entirely hemmed in by 
surrounding structures, and the frontage, on 
the great open Place Thiers, is the first and 
the last opportunity of an unobstructed view. 
As the Abbe Bourasse wrote of the Cathedral 
at Arras, it is best seen from a distance, about 
that, we should say, from which the accom- 
panying drawing was made. The gardens of 
the Sous-Prefecture, formerly the Bishop's 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Palace, should form in a way a cool green 
setting for the church ; but, as a matter of fact, 
they do nothing of the sort, since the enormous 
mass of a none too good Renaissance fagade 
extends along quite two-thirds of the length of 
the cathedral on the north, and blankets it 
thoroughly, scarcely more than the rather 
stubby tower of the west front being visible 
above the roof of the other structure. 

Lisieux apparently never ranked as an im- 
portant see, but depended for the prominence 
which it attained previous to the Revolution, 
when the see was abolished, on its association 
with Rouen, to which it was attached. The 
neighbouring Cathedrals of Seez, Bayeux, 
and Coutances far outrank St. Pierre de 
Lisieux in size, beauty, and importance. 



304 



NOTRE DAME DE SEEZ 

The ancient Civitas Sagiorum of the Ro- 
mans is now a bishopric, suffragan of Rouen. 
This ancient Gallic stronghold, which fared 
hardly in the Anglo-Norman wars, presents 
to-day the impression of being a town some- 
what smaller than the usual small town of 
France. It also has this advantage, — it is 
comparatively unknown to tourists, and like- 
wise to some map-makers; all of which is 
decidedly in its favour. Seldom is Seez in- 
cluded in the itinerary of the tourist, even 
though it is situated in the heart of the " popu- 
lar province." 

Except for the fact that its charming cathe- 
dral is not of the generous proportions first 
impressed upon one, it is difficult to realize 
that such a noble architectural memorial 
should so often be overlooked and apparently 
neglected by those who might find a great deal 
of pleasure, and incidental profit, from a con- 
templation thereof. 

305 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

As a town of celebrated history, Seez is of 
far more relative rank than its cathedral, 
which, in spite of its many beauties and charm 
of detail, has suffered perhaps more than any 
other in France, and yet kept a fairly pure 
early Gothic style ; referring to the many addi- 
tions and repairs made necessary by crum- 
bling walls and sinking foundations. 

The worst that has arisen from this unhappy 
state of affairs is, not that there has been any 
serious admixture of style, but rather that one 
gross interpolation has been foisted upon an 
otherwise symmetrical whole, — the enormous 
advancing buttresses which flank the portal of 
the western fagade; an addition of the four- 
teenth century, neither graceful nor decora- 
tive, and only made necessary by a tottering 
wall. A pity it is that some other equally 
effective method was not adopted. 

The cathedral is, in a way, a satisfying rep- 
resentation of the cathedral of our imagina- 
tion. From a distance, at least, and in com- 
parison with the low-lying structures round 
about, it certainly appears as of great propor- 
tions, uniform and complete in itself. Im- 
mediate contact with it somewhat dispels 
these charms. 

All things considered, one finds here, in this 
306 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

idyllic, countrified setting, a very attractive and 
fairly consistent Mediaeval Gothic church of 
the epoch contemporary with that of the best 
work of the northern builders, showing unmis- 
takable evidence of having been laid down on 
good lines, and after a good design, in spite of 
the structural defects of its foundations. From 
any direction it may be viewed across a quarter 
of a mile of ploughed fields. The great 
national highroad, from the Channel to Bor- 
deaux, passes straight as a die through the 
town, and the cross-country line of the Chemin 
de-Fer de Quest ambles slowly northward or 
southward; with little occurring to break the 
quietude of local ease. The native is for the 
most part engaged in garnering from his truck 
farm, or in carrying its product to the railway, 
to be transported to market, and pays little 
attention to the stray traveller who occasion- 
ally wanders in to study the architectural of- 
fering of the town. 

A completed church was here in 1050, hav- 
ing been erected by a monk, Azon by name. 
This was burned to the ground in an attempt 
to drive out a robber band which had taken 
shelter therein. Leo IX. engaged Yves, Count 
of Bellene and the Bishop of Alengon, to re- 
build it^ and restore its former splendour. 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

This was in the twelfth century, but, later, 
owing to the insecure foundations, it was 
pulled down and rebuilt again. Now nothing 
remains of the former twelfth and thirteenth 
century work but the lady-chapel of the choir. 

The interior of the nave is, at present, en- 
tirely filled with scaffolding, which looks as 
though it might not be removed for years. 
As a restorative policy this is commendable 
and was necessary, but it detracts from one's 
intimate acquaintance with details. About 
the only lasting impression of the nave that 
can now be obtained is that its proportions are 
superb, and that its cylindrical pillars, with 
their foliaged capitals, would be notable any- 
where. 

In general effect the choir is charming, hav- 
ing gone through the restorative process and 
apparently suffered little thereby. It presents 
the unusual basilica form of setting the altar 
forward on a platform raised a few steps. 

The transepts are of quite idyllic propor- 
tions, each possessing an ample rose window 
which makes up in design and framing what 
it may lack in the quality of glass with which 
it is set. These transepts, too, have undergone 
the usual restoration, and have come safely 
through with little sad effect. It is to be 

3q8 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

hoped that these continued restorations will 
be carried out with the same good taste, and in 
a like consistent manner. If so, there will be 
presented for the delectation of generations of 
the near future one of the most pleasing of the 
smaller cathedrals in all France. The tri- 
forium of the choir, and of the nave so far as 
it can be observed through the obstructing 
scaffolding, is singularly light and graceful, 
and the window framing throughout, though 
entirely lacking notable glass, is of manifest 
good design. 

In fine, then, the general effect of the Cathe- 
dral of Notre Dame de Seez is one of light- 
ness and grace, and it may be considered as an 
extraordinarily fine architectural monument, 
in spite of the anomalies of its west front. 

The twin spires rise gracefully for perhaps 
two hundred and fifty feet, and are after the 
best manner of the great Gothic builders; of 
true proportions, and of the dwindling pyram- 
idal form so much approved. 

The fagade, between the towers and the ex- 
traordinary buttresses, is completely filled 
with an ample Gothic portal, which, though 
entirely destitute of sculpture, or indeed carv- 
ing of any sort, offers a significant opportunity 
for some future efforts in this direction, 

309 




Igyy^g^zr^ ^ ^4^09-^6 ^Dsj5Me_ \r^ ^^^^"^^SXW^i^ 



VI 



NOTRE DAME DE BAYEUX 



The magnificently impressive Cathedral of 
Notre Dame is perhaps less intimately asso- 
ciated with Bayeux in the average mind than 
is the wonderful story-telling tapestry which 
is domiciled in the same city. As for this 
treasure of the past, it is a subject so vast, and 
of such great significance, in both history and 
art, that it has many times been made the sub- 
ject of weighty consideration. A well-known 
English amateur, the Honourable E. J. Low- 
ell, has stated that popular tradition has cred- 
ited it as the handiwork of Matilda, Queen of 

310 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

William the Conqueror, who worked it to 
commemorate his glorious achievements. If 
this be really so, the queen was probably as- 
sisted largely by the ladies of her court, as 
the extensive work, measuring some hundred 
and sixty odd feet, could hardly have been ac- 
complished single-handed. Professor Free- 
man assigns it to a similiar period, but worked, 
as he thinks, by English workmen, for Odo, 
Bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half- 
brother. 

A previous acquaintance with the great 
cathedrals of the Isle of France will tend 
somewhat to nullify the effect which is pro- 
duced by Notre Dame de Bayeux, although, 
in point of size and general arrangements, at 
least, it fulfils its functions perhaps more ac- 
ceptably than many a more renowned edifice. 
Its situation, on the side of a steep slope, pro- 
duces a curious effect, first, with respect to 
the choir chevet, which is thus shown as rather 
gaunt and bare in its lower elongated stages, 
though undeniably a fine work in itself; sec- 
ondly, in the general interior view where, 
from the western entrance, one comes upon the 
nave pavement a dozen or more steps below 
the portal, and again meets with the same ef- 
fect further on at the transept crossing. There 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

would appear to have been no other way but 
this of placing above ground what might 
otherwise have been the crypt; adding im- 
measurably to the fine appearance of the in- 
terior, the nave and choir appearing to 
lengthen out interminably by reason of the 
western elevation from which they are viewed. 
A portion of the western towers, and the 
crypt which is beneath the choir, are thought 
to date from as early as the eleventh century, 
having been built by Odo, the half-brother of 
William the Norman. The splendidly pro- 
portioned Norman nave, with its decorated 
spandrels and archivolts, a worthy decorative 
embellishment developed before the days of 
coloured glass, possesses that bright and 
fresh appearance which is usually associated 
with a recent work, whereas, as a matter 
of fact, it can hardly be, in its five circular 
arches at least, later than the late eleventh or 
early twelfth century. If it were true that 
modern restorative processes commonly dis- 
figured no more than this, it is a pity that the 
dust and cobwebs, and a little of the grime of 
ages, were not more often removed. Here is 
the very excess of dog-tooth, arabesque, and 
grotesque carving, never found in connection 
with a building which is constructively dec- 

312 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

orative. Here also is an ornate frieze of no 
great depth and possessing none of the beauties 
of the two other distinct elements. As there 
is no triforium in the nave proper, this decora- 
tion is, of course, intended merely as a relief 
to a bareness which, on account of the gener- 
ous height, would otherwise exist. 

In the choir, the triforium, which is omitted 
in the nave, springs into being in beautiful and 
ornate form. The lower arches, with the sup- 
ports, the attributed work of an English archi- 
tect, are of the usual Gothic form, in contra- 
distinction to the rounded heads of those of 
the nave. The clerestory, though delicate and 
graceful, is somewhat curtailed from the di- 
mensions of that of the west end of the church. 

The transepts are unusually bright and 
cheerful, with a series of windows more beau- 
tifully designed than those of either the choir 
or nave. The choir stalls are of oak, carved 
in the best manner of the Renaissance. 

The charming tower group of this cathe- 
dral is as effective, perhaps, as any among all 
the northern churches. The central belfry, al- 
beit of a base, though pretentious, rococo de- 
sign, follows no accepted style, but adds im- 
posingly to the general outline. (Its height 
is over three hundred feet.) In this tower, as 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

in the window tracery, the fleur-de4ys, always 
a sign of the decadent in Gothic style, is to be 
seen. The western towers, with their spires, 
follow the truest pyramidal form, and, though 
carrying both pointed and round-arched open- 
ings, are in every way representative of the 
best work of their period. The northwesterly 
tower has an elongated turret, extending from 
the lower ranges, which, when seen from a 
distance over the roof of the nave, appears as 
a protuberance not unlike a dove-cote. This 
contains the spiral staircase up which visitors 
are earnestly implored, by the caretaker, to 
wend their way and participate in the view 
from the heights above. This view, though 
undeniably wider in range than are most 
elevated view-points, is hardly of interest 
to one who seeks the beauties of the structure 
itself. There are three porches on the west 
fagade, all fairly well filled with foliaged 
ornament and bas-reliefs. They are of the 
thirteenth century, and of a thoroughly florid 
order. 

Included in the '^ tresor " are two gifts from 
St. Louis, the chasuble of St. Regnobert, and 
an ivory and enamel casket. 



314 




'> is-.- .Vet. N 



ic^r^s^ m t:^.^^ 






VII 



NOTRE DAME DE ST. LO 



This picturesquely situated city of the 
Cotentin, St. Lo, is so named from the Bishop 
St. Laud, who lived in the neighbourhood in 
the sixth century. Later, it became a Hugue- 
not stronghold, and was ably, though unsuc- 
cessfully, defended by Colombiers. It forms, 
with its former Cathedral of Notre Dame 
crowning its height, another of those ensem- 
bles which will always linger in the memory 
of the traveller who first comes upon it clad 
in spring and summer verdure. The rippling 
Vire at its very feet gives at once the note; 

3^5 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

it not only binds and enwraps it like the 
setting of a precious stone, but adds that one 
feature which, lacking, would be a chord mis- 
placed. Perhaps no other cathedral in all 
France, with regard to its bijou setting, cer- 
tainly no other so accessible to the English 
tourist, has more dainty charm than this not 
very grand, but graceful, church at St. Lo. 
Its towers, though not uniform as to size, are 
of apparently the same gradual proportions, 
and, if not the most impressive, are at least 
the most beautiful in Normandy. They rise 
high above th» wooded crest which encircles 
their base in true picture-book fashion. The 
attraction of the river, here, is unusual, in that 
it presents no accustomed " slummy " pictur- 
esqueness, but winds slowly, amid its green, 
to the very base of the clifif which upholds the 
chief portion of the town and its cathedral. 

The fagade presents a melange of the work 
of at least three epochs, a not unusual feature in 
some of the smaller cathedrals. It has a mean 
little house built into its northwest corner, 
a crude and ugly clock-face stuck unmean- 
ingly on its fagade, and a general air of dilapi- 
dation, with respect to the statues originally 
contained in its archivolts and niches, which, 
to say the least, is not creditable to those who 

316 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

have been responsible for its care. It would 
seem that so lively and important a centre of 
local activity might have devoted a little more 
thought and care to the maintenance of this 
charming building. 

Built up from a foundation of which but 
little, if any portion, visibly remains, Notre 
Dame shows a debasement of design and dec- 
oration of its fagade which is not only not 
admirable, but is, in addition, sadly disfigured. 
The one detail, for the most part good in style, 
is a not unduly florid arcade, which plainly 
indicates its superiority over the rest of the 
building. 

On the north side is an open-air pulpit of 
stone overhung with a canopy, a highly inter- 
esting detail, though, of course, not a unique 
one. Unable to command admiration as an 
absolute novelty, it is assuredly a charming 
feature, and is delicately and profusely sculp- 
tured. It suggests much in conjunction with 
the busy life of the rather squalid neighbour- 
ing market-place, whose only picturesque at- 
tribute is when it is crowded with the gaiety 
of a market or a fete day. By far the most 
compelling interest in the building, after an 
inspection of its interior, is the view to be had 
from a distance. 

317 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The nave is late Gothic, and widens out in 
curious fashion toward the east; otherwise 
the interior arrangements are not remarkable. 
One bulbous chapel on the south side supplants 
the usual transept. 

There is no triforium either in choir or 
nave, the lighting principally being effected by 
the large windows of the aisles. 

It is pertinent to recall here that one of 
Charlemagne's own foundations of the ninth 
century, destroyed by the barbarians, was situ- 
ated near by, the famous Abbey of St. Croix. 



318 



VIII 

NOTRE DAME DE COUTANCES 

Like many another town of western Nor- 
mandy, like Falise, Domfront, St. Lo, Gran- 
ville, Avranches, and Mont St. Michel itself, 
Coutances rises high above the surrounding 
plain and stands dominant in the landscape for 
miles on either hand. Of perhaps more mag- 
nitude, as to area, than any of the other ex- 
amples, the city has the added attribute of 
three towered ecclesiastical edifices, which 
rise nobly in varying stages far over the neigh- 
bouring roof-tops of the town itself and the 
tree-clad slopes which embank it. 

The oldest of the Norman Gothic cathe- 
drals, and that which partakes the most of 
local character, is Notre Dame de Coutances. 
Certain French archaeologists have said that 
the main body of the church is actually that 
of the eleventh century. It is more likely, 
however, that none of the building at present 
in view is earlier than the thirteenth century, 

321 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the epoch during which contemporaneous 
Gothic first grew to its maturity. In any 
event, such building and construction was 
going on from 1208 to 1233 as would indicate 
that it was the entire present edifice which was 
being planned at that time. In this case it 
is quite possible that the rebuilding was going 
on slowly, foot by foot, in a manner which not 
only encompassed and absorbed the older 
building, but in reality eradicated every ves- 
tige of it. Says a French writer of enthusi- 
asm, " The Cathedral of Coutances, as it now 
stands, is one of the most noble and grand relig- 
ious edifices in France, with all the qualities of 
a monument of the first order, of perfect di- 
mension, beauty of plan, unity of workman- 
ship, and distinction of form." Any one of 
these attributes, were it literally so, might well 
turn a commonplace structure into an unap- 
proachable masterpiece. In a measure, all of 
his eulogy is quite true, and the pity is that 
more do not know of its fascination and charm. 
The f agade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame 
is of the indigenous Norman-Gothic type. 
The fine towers, in addition to combining the 
symmetrical elements of Gothic, have, each, 
as well, a flanking towerlet, attached to their 
outer sides, enclosing a spiral stairway. These 

322 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

extend to quite the full height of the tower 
proper; and, though by no means a wholly 
attractive feature, are not as offensive as might 
at first be supposed. It is doubtful, in fact, if 
the general strength and impressiveness of the 
entire structure would not be impaired were 
the arrangements otherwise. 

The present ogival structure is built on the 
remains of a Romanesque church erected by a 
famous Bishop of Coutances, Geoffrey de 
Montbray, with funds supplied by Guillaume 
Bras-de-Fer, Odon, Roger, Onfroy, and Rob- 
ert, sons of Tancrede-de-Hauteville, the Nor- 
man conquerors of Sicily and Calabria, whose 
names have been given fabled prominence in 
more than one epic poem. The early structure 
was consecrated in 1056, in the presence of 
William, then Duke of Normandy, a few 
years before he became the Conqueror. Sup- 
posedly none of this former church remains; 
in fact, what fragments, if any, exist, are 
doubtless covered in the present foundations. 

Mainly, the present structure is thirteenth- 
century work, with a lady-chapel of the four- 
teenth century. 

An unusual, and exceedingly beautiful, ef- 
fect is given by the Gothic window mullions, 
between the chapels, in reality a series of geo- 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

metrical window-frames, without glass. No 
florid ornament either inside or out is to be 
found to offend against accepted ideals. In 
short, " the whole is of a piece complete." 
The parapets of triforium and clerestory, with 
foliaged carvings, are about the only ornate 
decorations to be seen. 

The central tower, of great proportions, but 
incomplete as to the addition of a spire, is a 
marvel of strength and power. Its interior, 
elaborately decorated, forms a lantern at the 
crossing. Here, as at Bayeux, the choir is 
raised a few steps above its aisles, giving a 
certain impressiveness beyond what might 
otherwise exist. 

The interior, generally, is admirable. Clus- 
tered columns, as they are commonly called, 
— in reality they are clustered pillars, if word 
derivations are to be considered, — separate 
both nave and choir from the aisles; and, in 
case of the choir, a series of elongated circu- 
lar pillars are coupled, one behind the other, 
an unquestionably unique arrangement. 

The transepts are practically non-existent, as 
the widening does not extend beyond the ex- 
tent of the nave chapels. This leaves the 
ground-plan, at least, a mere parallelogram 
with a rounded eastern end. 

324 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

Notre Dame de Coutances is one of the few 
really great Gothic churches not possessing an 
example of those French masterworks, the 
rose window. 

Again referring to the fine tower group, it 
is probably true that, were the huge central 
tower properly spired, the ensemble would 
rival Laon in regard to its impressive situation 
and elaborate pinnacles. 

St. Pierre, of the fifteenth century, and St. 
Nicolas, of the fourteenth, complete the trinity 
of fine churches which Coutances possesses. 
The latter contains the unusual arrangement 
in a Continental church of pews in place of 
chairs, although formerly, it is said, this fea- 
ture was not uncommon in Normandy. 

The somewhat considerable remains of a 
Roman acqueduct, near by, are sufficiently 
remarkable to warrant passing consideration, 
even by the " mere lover of churches." 



3^5 




IX 



ST. PIERRE D'AVRANCHES 



There is little to recount concerning the 
See of Avranches. Its bishopric and its 
cathedral were alike destroyed during the 
parlous times of the bickerings and ravages of 
Royalists and Republicans of the Revolution- 
ary period. All that remains to-day is a tri- 
fling heap of stones which would hardly fill a 
row-boat, — a fragment of a shaft on which is 
a tablet reading: 

326 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 



" On this stone, 

Here at the door of the Cathedral of Avranches, 

After the Murder of Thomas A Becket, 

Archbishop of Canterbury, 

Henry II., 

King of England and Duke of Normandy, 

Received on his knees, 

From the Legates of the Pope, 

The Apostolic Absolution, 

On Sunday, 22D May 1172." 



At its feet is another slab, the aforementioned 
door-step, on which, before the papal legate, 
the remorseful monarch did penance before 
his later expiation at Canterbury. 

A little farther on is a small heap consisting 
of shafts and capitals of columns, a stone sar- 
cophagus and a brass plate stating that they 
are the '' Derniers restes de la cathedrale 
d'Avranches; commencee vers 1090 et con- 
sacree par I'eveque Turgis en 1121." The 
nave having fallen in, the rest of the edifice 
had to be taken down in 1799. 

Because of its picturesque environment and 
situation, Avranches is perhaps a more than 
ordinarily attractive setting for a shrine, and 
it is well worthy of the attention of the passing 
traveller, in spite of its ancient cathedral being 

327 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

now but a heap of stones. Apart from this 
it is of little interest, and hence, to most, it will 
probably remain, in the words of a French 
traveller, a mere " silhouette in the distance." 




328 




Bfe^^te^^^^Sio 



ST. SAMSON, DOL - DE - BRETAgNE 



The one-time Cathedral of St. Samson, at 
Dol, is, says an unsually expressive French- 
man, " a grand, noble, and severe church, now^ 
widov^ed of its bishops. Its aspect is desolate 
and abandoned, as if it w^ere but a ruin en 
face sur la grande place, of itself, but a mere 
desert of scrub." This is certainly a vivid and 
forceful description of even a wholly unpre- 
possessing shrine. This St. Samson is not, and 
due allow^ance should be made for verbal 
modelling which, in many cases, is but the 

3^9 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

mere expression of a mood pro tempo. There 
is, however, somewhat of truth in the descrip- 
tion. About the granite walls there is a grim- 
ness and gauntness of decay; of changed plans 
and projects; of devastation; of restoration; 
and, finally, of what is, apparently, submis- 
sion to the inevitableness of time. 

The enormous northwesterly tower is 
stopped suddenly, with the daylight creeping 
through its very framework. Its f agade is cer- 
tainly bare of ornament, and gives a thor- 
ough illustration of paucity of design as well 
as of detail. There is, indeed, nothing in the 
west fagade to compel admiration, and yet 
there is a fascination about it that to some will 
be irresistible. 

A sixteenth-century porch, of suggested 
Burgundian style, forms the main entrance to 
the church, and is situated midway along the 
south side. Almost directly opposite, on the 
north, is the curiously contrasting feature of a 
crenelated battlement, a reminder of the time 
when the church was doubtless a temporal as 
well as a spiritual stronghold. 

The interior, as the exterior, is gloomy and 
melancholy. One has only to contemplate the 
collection of ludicrously slender clustered col- 
umns of the nave, bound together with mark- 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

edly visible iron strands, to realize the real 
weakness of the means by which the fabric has 
been kept alive. 

The nave itself is of true proportions, and, 
regardless of the severity of its lines, and the 
ludicrous pillars, is undeniably fine in effect. 

A curiously squared choir-end, but with the 
small apsed lady-chapel extending beyond, is 
another of those curious details which stand 
out in a way to be remarked in a French 
church. In this squared end, and above the 
arch made by the pillars of the choir aisle, is 
a large pointed window filled with ancient 
glass which must have been inserted soon after 
the church was reconstructed after the fire in 
the twelfth century. 

The general effect of the nave and aisles is 
one of extreme narrowness, which perhaps is 
not so much really the case when actual meas- 
urements are taken. 

In general, the church is supposed by many 
to resemble the distinct type of Gothic as it 
is known across the Channel; and, admitting 
for the nonce that possibly many of the Brit- 
tany structures were the work of English 
builders, this church, in the absence of any 
records as to who were its architects, may well 
be counted as of that number. 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

The stalls of the choir are of delicately 
carved wood, before which is placed a monu- 
mental bishop's throne, with elaborate ar- 
morial embellishments. A Renaissance tomb 
of the sixteenth century, by a pupil of Michael 
Colomb, now much injured in its sculptured 
details of angels and allegorical figures, is 
locally considered the " show-piece " of the 
church. 



Z^'^ 




^ 



sii^^JjO es-^ <y. se^mjoj^jv* 



? 




XI 

ST. MALO AND ST. SERVAN 

Welshmen throughout the world rejoice 
that it was one of their countrymen, a monk of 
the sixth century, who gave his name as 
founder to the " walled city of St. Malo by 
the sea." With its outlying and contiguous 
towns of St. Servan, Dinan, and Parame, St. 
Malo is a paradise for the mere lover of pleas- 
ure resorts. Further, with respect to the first 
three places mentioned, there is present not a 
little of the romance and history of the past, 
reflected as it were in a modern mirror. Not 
but that the old town of St. Malo, within the 
walls, is ancient and picturesque enough, and 
dirty, too, if one be speciously critical; but 
the fact is that the modern Pont Roulant, and 
the omnific toot of the steam-tram, ever pres- 
ent in one's sight and hearing, are forcible 
reminders of the march of time. 

St. Servan, so far as its cathedral is con- 
cerned, may be dismissed in a word. The 

33 S 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

ancient see of St. Pierre d'Aleth had, at one 
time, its dignity vested in a bishop who en- 
throned himself in a cathedral, the remains of 
which exist to-day only as a fragment built 
into the fortifications. The bishopric was 
removed in 1142 to St. Malo. 

With St. Malo a difference exists. Its 
cathedral, now degenerated to a parish 
church, is a Gothic work mainly of the fif- 
teenth century, and, regardless of its unim- 
posing qualities, is one of those fascinating 
old buildings which, in its environment and 
surroundings, appeals perhaps more largely 
to us as a component of a whole than as a 
feature to be admired by itself. The church, 
safely sheltered from the ravage of gale and 
storm, sits amid narrow winding streets, 
whose buildings are so compressed as to rise 
to heights unusual in the smaller Continental 
towns. 

The edifice is mainly of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, but has been variously renovated and re- 
stored. Gothic, Renaissance, and the transi- 
tion between the two are plainly discernible 
throughout. Perhaps the best art to be noted 
is that found in the interior of the choir, with 
its fine triforium and clerestory windows 
above. Here, again, is to be observed the 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

squared east end of the English contemporary 
church, a further reminder, if it be needed, of 
the influences which were bound to be more 
or less exchanged with regard to the arts and 
customs of the time, on both shores of ha 
Manche. 

A few features of passing interest are here, 
an ivory crucifix, a few tombs, and some indif- 
ferent paintings. 

The spire is modern, but gives a suggestion, 
at least, in viewing the city from a distance, 
of something of what a mediaeval walled sea- 
port, with its population huddled close be- 
neath the shadow of the church, and within 
the city walls, must have been like. The best 
example of this which ever existed in medi- 
aeval France, and which exists to-day in a 
more than ordinary remarkable state of pres- 
ervation, is the famous Mount St. Michel, a 
few miles only to the eastward, and famed of 
all, historian, ecclesiast, artist, and mere pleas- 
ure-seeker, alike. Most writers are pleased 
to refer to the confiding attitude of mine host, 
who conducts the principal hostelry on the 
Mount, and who guilelessly asks the wary 
traveller (ofttimes they are wary) what he 
has partaken of during his stay, and makes up 
the account accordingly. This is, perhaps, 

337 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

not the least of attributive charms, though it 
should be a minor one where this wonderful 
and real Mount, which takes its name from 
legendary St. Michel, is concerned. Indeed, 
leaving the cathedrals at Rouen, Chartres, 
and Le Mans out of the question, it is doubtful 
if the Abbey of Mont St. Michel is not the 
chief remaining architectural glory of the 
middle ages, west of Paris. 

It is but a short distance from St. Malo to 
St. Servan, but what a difference! It is called 
by the French themselves the daughter of St. 
Malo, — the "faubourg grown into a city." 

Rabida's '^ Bretagne " states that there are 
" nombreux des Anglais a St. Servan, des 
jeunes gens vivant dans les pensions britta- 
niques — des families venant I'ete faire en Bre- 
tagne une cure d'economies pour I'hiver." 
Continuing, this discerning author says: 
" Bathers, bicyclists, golfists, promenaders, 
and excursionists abound.'^ Better then let 
them hold forth here to their hearts' content; 
there is little that the lover of churches will 
gain from what remains to-day of the town's 
former Cathedral of St. Pierre. 



ZZ^ 



XII 

TREGUIER 

This old cathedral city, at the junction of 
two small streamlets, a short distance from 
the sea, lies perhaps a dozen miles away from 
the nearest railway. With St. Pol de Leon 
and St. Brieuc it is, in local characteristics 
and customs alike, a something apart from 
any other community in northern France. 
The Bretons are commonly accredited as be- 
ing a most devout race, and certainly devotion 
could take no more marked turn than the 
many evidences here to be seen in this " land 
of Calvaries." St. Brieuc is a bishopric, suf- 
fragan of Rennes, whose cathedral is a hide- 
ous modern structure of the early nineteenth 
century quite unworthy as a shrine; but Tre- 
guier's power waned with the Revolution. Its 
fourteenth-century church, however, is suffi- 
ciently remarkable by reason of its situation 
and surroundings, none the less than in its 
fabric, to warrant a deviation from well-worn 

339 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

roads in order to visit it. Chiefly of a late 
period, it possesses in the Tour de Hasting, 
named after the Danish pirate (though why 
seems obscure), which enfolds the north tran- 
sept, a work of the best eleventh-century class. 
This should place the church, at once, within 
the scope of the designation of a " transition " 
type. In this tower the windows and pilasters 
are of the characteristic round variety of the 
period. The south porch is the most highly 
developed feature as to Mediaeval style, but 
the attraction lies mainly in its ensembled mas- 
siveness, with its two sturdy towers and a 
ridiculously spired south clocher. Beyond 
a certain grimness of fabric the church fails, 
not a little, to impress one with even simple 
grandeur, even when one takes into considera- 
tion the charms of its florid but firmly de- 
signed cloister, which, with the church itself, 
is classed by the Departement des Beaux Arts 
as one of the twenty-three hundred " Monu- 
tnentes Historiques/' Nevertheless, the build- 
ing proves more than ordinarily gratifying, 
though by no stretch of the imagination could 
it be classed as grand. 

Loftiness and grandeur are equally lacking 
in the interior, and there is great variation of 
style with respect to the pillars of nave and 

340 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

choir. This is also the case with the windows, 
which play the gamut from the severe round- 
headed Romanesque to the latest flamboyant 
development, a feature which not only disre- 
gards most conventions, but, as every one will 
admit, most flagrantly offends, with sad re- 
sults, against the general constructive elements. 
A plain triforium, in the nave, blossoms out, in 
the south transept and choir, in no hesitating 
manner, into exceeding richness. The choir 
has an apsidal termination and contains 
carved wooden stalls which are classed as 
work of the mid-seventeenth century, though 
appearing much more time-worn. 

The really popular attribute of the church 
lies in the reconstructed monument to St. Yves, 
the patron saint of advocates, and commonly 
considered the most popular in all the Brit- 
tany calendar. 

Born near Treguier in 1253, St. Yves' " un- 
heard-of probity and consideration for the sick 
and the poor " gained such general respect 
that, with his death on the nineteenth of May, 
1303, there was inaugurated a great feast 
which to-day is yearly celebrated, and all 
grieving against a real or fancied wrong have 
recourse promptly to the supposedly just fa- 
vour of this universal patron of the law. 

341 




XIII 



ST. BRIEUC 



Unlike many of the smaller towns which 
contain cathedral churches, St. Brieuc is a 
present day bishopric; hence the Cathedral 
takes on, perhaps, more significance than it 
would, were it but an example of a Mediaeval 
church. 

In reality it is not a very wonderful struc- 
ture, and the guide-books will tell one practi- 
cally nothing about it. The town itself is a 
dull place, a tidal port, at some little distance 
from the sea, which flushes in upon it twice 
during the round of the clock. 

A monastery was founded here in the fifth 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

century by St. Brieuc, from whom the town 
itself and the present cathedral take their 
name. He was a Celtic monk from Wales, 
who, upon being expelled from his native 
land, located his establishment here, on the 
site of a former Gallo-Roman town. The pa- 
tronal feast of St. Brieuc is held each year 
on the first of May and is a curious survival of 
a mediaeval custom. 

Some remains of an early church are built 
into the choir walls, but in the main this not 
very grand edifice is of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries. 

The tower, with its loopholes, would sup- 
posedly indicate that the church was likewise 
intended as somewhat of a fortification. The 
apse is rounded in the usual form, and on 
either side extend transepts to the width of 
two bays. 

Within, the Cathedral is more attractive 
than without. The elements of construction 
and embellishment, while perhaps not rank- 
ing with those of the really great churches, 
are sufficiently vivid and lively to indicate 
that the work was consciously and enthusiasti- 
cally undertaken. The lady-chapel is of the 
thirteenth century, and the transept rose is of 
the fifteenth, as is also the Chapel of St. Guil- 

343 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

laume, named for the monk of Dijon who built 
so many of the monasteries throughout Brit- 
tany and who, it is to be presumed, planned or 
built the original structure, the remains of 
which are found in the present choir. 

The windows throughout are either of not 
very good modern glass, or of plain leaded 
lights, which, in the majority of cases, may be 
considered as no less an attraction. An elab- 
orate rose is in the western gable. 

There are, in the church, various monu- 
ments and tombs to former bishops. 



344 



XIV 

ST. POL DE LEON 

In the midst of that land which furnishes 
the south of England with most of its cauli- 
flowers, artichokes, onions, and asparagus, 
truly ofiF the beaten track, in that it is actually 
off the line of railway, is the strange and mel- 
ancholy city of St. Pol de Leon, its clochers 
dominating, by day at least, both land and 
sea. It contains the famous " Kreisker," a 
name which sounds as though it were Dutch 
or North German, which it probably is along 
with other place names on the near-by coast, 
such as Grouin, St. Vaast, Roscoff, and La 
Hougue. 

The tower and spire of this wonderful 
" Kreisker " rise boldly, from the transept 
crossing, in remarkable fashion, and as a 
marvel of construction may be said to far out- 
rank the cathedral structure itself. " Curious 
and clever " well describes it. As for the 
former cathedral over which the Kreisker 

345 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

throws its shadow, it is one of those majestic 
twin-towered structures not usually associated 
with what, when compared with the larger 
French towns, must perforce rank as a mere 
village. 

There is much to be said in favour of these 
little-known near-by places, namely, that the 
charm of their attractions amply repays one 
for any special labour involved in getting to 
them, with the additional advantage, regard- 
less of the fact that a stranger appears some- 
what to the native as a curiosity, that they are 
'' good value for the money paid." Perhaps 
the cheapest Continental tour, of say three 
weeks, that could be taken, amid a constantly 
changing environment, if one so choose, would 
comprehend this land of Calvaries. 

The two cathedral towers of early Gothic 
flank a generous porch. There is good glass 
throughout the church, the circular '^ rose " 
of the transept being a magnificent composi- 
tion in a granite framing. The nave is of 
thirteenth-century Gothic, from the south aisle 
of which projects a large chapel dedicated to 
St. Michael. The double-aisled choir is gar- 
nished with sculptured stalls of the fifteenth 
century, and, separated from its aisles by a 
stone screen, is of much larger proportions 

346 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

than the nave, and likewise of a later epoch of 
building. The apse is flamboyant, as are also 
the windows of the south transept. In the 
chapels are various vaults and tombs, remark- 
ably well preserved, but of no special moment. 
In one of these chapels, however, is a curious 
painting in the vaulting, representing a 
" Trinity " possessing three faces, disposed in 
the form of a trefoil with three eyes only. A 
ribbon or '' banderalle " bears an inscription 
in Gothic characters; in the Breton tongue, 
" Ma Donez" (Mon Dieu). 



347 



XV 

St. CORENTIN DE QUIMPER 

*' C'est Quimper, ce melange du passe et 
du present." A true enough description of 
most mediaeval cities when viewed to-day; 
but with no centre of habitation is it more true 
than of this city by the sea, — though in re- 
ality it is not by the sea, but rather of it, with 
a port always calm and tranquil. It takes 
rank with Brest as the western outpost of 
modern France. 

For centuries unconquered, and possessing 
an individuality of its very own, this now 
important prefecture has much to remind us 
of its past. History, archaeology, and " mere 
antiquarian lore " abound, and, in its grandi- 
ose Cathedral of St. Corentin, one finds a 
large subject for his appreciative considera- 
tion. 

It is of the robust and matured type that 
familiarity has come to regard as representa- 
tive of a bishopric; nothing is impoverished 

34B 



:i- 



:m 










T. CORENTIN 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

or curtailed. Its fine towers with modern 
spires, erected from the proceeds of a '' butter 
tax," are broad of base and delicately and 
truly proportioned. Its ground-plan is 
equally worthy, though the choir is not truly 
orientated. Its general detail and ensemble, 
one part with another, is all that fancy has told 
us a great church should contain, and one can 
but be prepared to appreciate it when it is 
endorsed, and commented on, by such ardent 
admirers as De Caumont, VioUet-le-Duc, Cor- 
royer, and Gonse, those four accomplished 
Frenchmen, who probably knew more con- 
cerning Mediaeval (Gothic) architecture than 
all the rest of the world put together. 

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century 
there grew up here a work embracing the 
ogival and the flamboyant, neither in an un- 
due proportion, but as well as in any other 
single structure known. This well shows the 
rise, development, and apogee of the style 
which we commonly call Gothic, but which 
the French prefer to call '' ogival," and which 
should really, if one is to fairly apportion 
credit where it is due, be best known as French 
Mediaeval architecture. 

Its west fagade, with its generous lines, is 
strongly original. The two towers, pierced 

349 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

with enormously heightened lancets, are in- 
dubitably graceful and impressive, while a 
flanking pair of flying buttresses, with their 
intermediate piers, form an unusual arrange- 
ment in the west front of a French cathedral. 

Above the western gable is a curiously 
graven effigy of King GroUo in stone. 

Considered as a whole, the exterior is repre- 
sentative of the best contemporary features of 
the time, but contains few if any which are so 
distinctly born of its environment as to be 
otherwise notable. 

The interior vies with the outer portion of 
the fabric in the general effect of majesty and 
good design. The triforium is remarkably 
beautiful and is overtopped by a range of 
clerestory windows which to an appreciable 
extent contain good early glass. The easterly 
end is the usual semicircular apse. 

Among the relics of the Cathedral is a cruci- 
fix which is supposed to emit drops of blood 
when one perjures himself before it. It is, per- 
haps, significant that the people of Finistere, 
the department which claims Quimper as its 
capital, have the repute of being honest folk. 

The Bishops of Quimper were, by virtue of 
the gift of le roi Grodlon le Grave, the only 
seigneurs of the city during the middle ages. 



XVI 

VANNES 

Vannes was the ancient capital of the 
Celtic tribe of the Veneti, its inhabitants being 
put to rout by Caesar in 57 B. C. Afterward it 
became the Roman town of Duriorigum, and 
later reverted back to a corruption of its 
former name. Christianity having made some 
progress, a council was held, and a bishop ap- 
pointed to the city, and from that time onward 
its position in the Christian world appears to 
have been assured. For centuries afterward, 
however, it was the centre of a maelstrom of 
internal strife, in which Armoricans, Britons, 
Franks, and Romans appear to have been in- 
extricably involved. Then came the North- 
men, who burned the former Cathedral of St. 
Peter. This was rebuilt in the eleventh cen- 
tury, and in no small measure forms the foun- 
dation of the present structure, which to-day is 
the seat of a bishop, suffragan of Rennes. 

From this early architectural foundation, to 
35^ 



The Cathedrals of Northern France 

the most florid and flamboyant of late Gothic, 
is pretty much the whole range of Mediaeval 
architectural style. By no means has a grand 
or even fine structure resulted. The old choir, 
suffering from the stress of time, was pulled 
down and rebuilt as late as 1770. Thus, this 
usually excellently appointed and constructed 
detail is here of no worthy rank whatever. The 
nave and transepts were completed within the 
hundred years following 1452, and show the 
last flights of Gothic toward the heights from 
which it afterward fell. Transformation and 
restoration have frequently been undertaken, 
with the result that nowhere is to be seen per- 
haps greater inconsistencies. The latest of 
these examples of a perverted industry is seen 
in the nineteenth-century additions to the 
tower and the west fagade. The result is not, 
be it said, to the credit of its projectors. 



THE END. 



3^^ 



Appendices 



The Architectural Divisions of France 

It is quite possible to construct an ethnographic map 
of a country from its architectural remains, — but there 
must always be diverse and varying opinions as to the 
delimitation of one school, as compared with another 
lying contiguous thereto. 

One may wander from province to province, and 
continually find reminders, of another manner of building, 
from that which is recognized as the characteristic local 
species. This could hardly be otherwise. In the past, 
as in the present, imitators were not few, and if the 
adoption of new, or foreign, ideas was then less rapid, 
it was no less sure. Still, in the main, there is a 
cohesiveness and limitation of architectural style in 
France ; which, as is but natural to suppose, is in no 
way more clearly defined than by the churches which 
were built during the middle ages, the earliest types 
retaining the influence of massive forms, and the later 
again debasing itself to a heavy classical order, neither a 
copy of anything of a pre-Gothic era, or a happy de- 

353 



Appendices 

velopment therefrom. Between the two, in a period of 
scarcely more than three hundred years, there grew up 
and developed the ingenious and graceful pointed style, 
in all its fearlessness and unconvention. 

Political causes had, perhaps, somewhat to do with 
the confining of a particular style well within the land 
of its birth, but on the other hand, warfare carried 
with it invasion and conquest of new sections, and its 
followers, in a measure, may be said to have carried 
with them certain of their former arts, accomplishments, 
and desires ; and so grew up the composite and mixed 
types which are frequently met with. 

There are a dozen or more architectural styles in 
what is known as the France of to-day. The Proven- 
cal (more properly, says Fergusson, it should be called 
" Gallia Narbonese,") one of the most beautiful and 
clearly defined of all ; the Burgundian, with its sugges- 
tion of luxuriance and, if not massiveness, at least 
grandeur ; the Auvergnian, lying contiguous to both the 
above, with a style peculiarly its own, though of an un- 
compromising southern aspect ; Acquitanian, defining 
the style which lies between Provence, the Auvergnat 
and the Pyrenees, and a type quite different from either. 
The Angevinian, which extends northward from Limoges 
to Normandy and Brittany, and northeasterly nearly to 
Orleans, is a species diificult to place — it partakes 
largely of southern influence, but is usually thought to 
merit a nomenclature of its own, as distinct from the 
type found at Anjou. Turning now to the northern or 
Frankish influence, as distinct from the Romance coun- 

354 



Appendices 

tries ; Brittany joins to no slight degree influences of 
each region ; Normandy partakes largely of the charac- 
teristics of the type of Central France, which is thor- 
oughly dominated by that indigenous to the Isle of 
France, which species properly might include the Bour- 
bonnais and Nivernoise variants, as being something 
of a distinct type, though resembling, in occasional 
details, southern features. This list, with the addition 
of French Flanders, with its Lowland types, completes 
the arrangement, if we except Alsace and Lorraine, 
which favour the German manner of building rather 
more than any of the native French types. 



355 



II 



A List of the Departments of France^ and of the 
Ancient Provinces from which they have been 
evolved. 



Provinces and date ofuniojt 
■with France 


Dipartements 


Chefs-Lieux 


He de France, with La 
Brie, etc. Always held 
by the Crown 


Seine 

Seine-et-Oise 

Seine-et-Marne 


Paris 

Versailles 
Melun 




Oise 
Aisne 


Beauvais 
Laon 


Picardie. Louis XIV. 1667 


Somme 


Amiens 


Artois and Boulonnais. 
1640 


Pas-de-Calais 


Arras 


Flandre and H a i n a ul t 
Fran9ais. Louis XIV. 
1667-1669 


Nord 


Lille 


Normandie. Philippe 
Augusta, 1204 


Seine-Inferieure 
Eure 


Rouen 
Evreux 







Manche 


Saint-L6 


Bretagne. 
1532 


Fran9ois I. 


Ille-et-Vilaine 

C6tes-du-Nord 

Finisterre 

Morbihan 

Loire-Inferieure 


Rennes 

Saint-Brieux 

Quimper 

Vannes 

Nantes 


Orleanais. 
1498 


Louis XII. 


Loiret 
Loir-et-Cher 


Orleans 
Blois 


Beauce and 
train 


Pays Char- 


Eure-et-Loire 


Chartres 


Maine. Louis XI. 1481 
Anion. Louis XL 1481 


Sarthe 
Mayenne 

Maine-et-Loire 


Le Mans 
Laval 

Angers 



ZS^ 



Appendices 



Provinces and date of union 
with France 


Dipartements 


Chefs- Lieux 


Touraine. Henri III. 1584 


Indre-et-Loire 


Tours 


Poitou. Charles VI. 1416 


Vendee 

Deux-Sevres 

Vienne 


Bourbon-Vendee 

Niort 

Poitiers 


Berri. Philippe I. iioo 


Indre 
Cher 


Chateauroux 
Bourges 


Marche. Fran9ois I. 1531 


Creuse 


Gueret 


Limousin. Charles V. 
1370 


Haute- Vienne 
Correze 


Limoges 
Tulle 


Angoumois. Charles V. 
1370 


Charente 


Angouleme 


Saintonge and A u n i s . 


Charente-Inferieure 


La Rochelle 


1370 






Guienne and Gascogne. 
Charles VII. 1451 


Dordogne 

Gironde 

Lot-et-Garonne 

Lot 

Tarn-et-Garonne 

Aveyron 

Gers 

Hautes-Pyrenees 

Landes 


Perigueux 

Bordeaux 

Agen 

Cahors 

Montauban 

Rodez 

Auch 

Tarbes 

Mont-de-Marsan 


Beam and French Navarre. 
Louis XI 1 1. 


Basses-Pyrenees 


Pau 


Comte de Foix. Louis 
XIII. 


Ariege 


Foix 


Roussillon. 1659 


Pyrenees-Orientales 


Perpignan 


Languedoc. John, 1361 


Haute-Garonne 

Tarn 

Aude 

Herault 

Gard 


Toulouse 

Albi 

Carcassonne 

Montpellier 

Nimes 


Vivarais 


Ardeche 


Privas 


Gevaudan 


Lozere 


Mende 


Velay 


Haute-Loire 


Le Puy 


Comtat Venaissin, Orange, 
etc. Louis XIV. 17 13 


Vaucluse 


Avignon 


Provence. Louis XI. 148 1 


Bouches-du-Rhone 

Var 

Basses-Alpes 


Marseille 

Draguignan 

Digne 



357 



Appendices 



Provinces and date of union 
with France 

Dauphine. Philippe de 
Valois, 1343 


DSpariemenis 

Isere 

Drome 

Hautes-Alpes 


Che/s-L ieux 

Grenoble 

Valence 

Gap 


Lyonnais and Beaujolais 
Forez 


Rhone 
Loire 


Lyon 

St. Etienne 


Auvergne. Philippe Au- 
gusta, 1210 


Puy-de-D6me 
Cantal 


Clermont 
Aurillac 


Bourbonnais. Louis XII. 


Allier 


Moulins 


1505 
Nivernais. Charles VII. 


Nievre 


Nevers 


1457 
Bresse, Bugey, etc. 
Bourgogne (duche). Louis 

XI. 1477 


Ain 

Saone-et-Loire 

Cote-d'Or 

Yonne 


Bourg 

Macon 

Dijon 

Auxerre 


Comte de Bourgogne, or 
Franche-Comte. Peace 
of Nimeguen, 1678 


Doubs 

Jura 

Haute-Saone 


Besan9on 
Lons-le-Saulnier 

Vesoul 


Champagne. Philippe le 
Bel, 1284 


Aube 

Marne 

Haute-Marne 

Ardennes 


Troyes. [Marne 
Chalons-sur- 
Chaumont 
Mezieres 


Lorraine.^ On the death 
of Stanislas Leczinsky, 
1766 


Meurthe and Moselle 

Meuse 

Vosges 


Nancy 

Bar-le-Duc 

Epinal 


Alsace.* Louis XIV. 1648 


Territory of Belfort 
Haut-Rhin 


Belfort 
Colmar 


Corsica. 1794. 


Corse 


Ajaccio 


Comte de Nice. 1861 


Alpes Maritimes 


Nice 


Savoy 


Savoie 
Haute-Savoie 


Chambery 
Annecy 



* The greater part of these provinces as they formerly stood were ceded to Ger- 
many, May 10, 1871. 



358 



Ill 



The Church in France 

La France Catholique is to-day divided into eighty- 
four dioceses, administered, as to spiritual affairs, by 
seventeen archbishops and sixty-seven bishops. To 
each diocese is attached a seminary for the instruction 
of those who aspire to the priesthood. Each chief 
town of a canton has its cure^ each parish its desservant. 



A rchbishops and Bishops 


Dioceses 


Paris 

Chartres 

Meaux 

Orleans 

Blois 

Versailles 


Seine 

Eure-et-Loire 

Seine-et-Marne 

Loiret 

Loire-et-Cher 

Seine-et-Oise 


Cambrai 

Arras 


Nord 
Pas-de- Calais 


Lyon - et - Vienne 
Autun 
Langres 
Dijon 

Sainte Claude 
Grenoble 


Rhone, Loire 

Saone-et-Loire 

Haute-Marne 

C6te-d'Or 

Jura 

Isere 


Bourges 

Clermont 
Limoges 
Le Puy 
Tulle 
Saint Flour 


Cher-et-Indre 

Puy-de-D6me 

Haute- Vienne et Creuse 

Haute-Loire 

Correze 

Cantal 



359 



Appendices 



A rchhishops and Bishops 


Dioceses 


Albi 


Tarn 


Rodez 


Aveyron 


Cahors 


Lot 


Meude 


Lozere 


Perpignan 


Pyrenees-Oriental es 


Bordeaux* 


Gironde 


A gen 


Lot-et-Garonne 


Angouleme 


Charente 


Poitiers 


Vienne-et-Deux Sevres 


Perigueux 


Dordogne 


La Rochelle 


Charente-Inferieure 


Lu9on 


Vendee 


AUCH 


Gers 


Aire 


Landes 


Tarbes 


Hautes-Pyrenees 


Bayonne 


Basses-Pyrenees 


Toulouse - Narbonne 


Haute-Garonne 


Montauban 


Tarne-et-Garonne 


Pamiers 


Arige 


Carcassonne 


Aude 


Rouen 


Seine-Inferieur 


Bayeux 


Calvados 


Evreux 


Eure 


Seez 


Orne 


Coutances 


Manche 


Sens et Auxerre 


Yonne 


Troyes 


Aube 


Nevers 


Nievre 


Moulins 


Allier 


Reims 


Arr. de Reims-et-Ardennes 


Soissons 


Aisne 


Chalons-sur-Marne 


Marne except Arrond. de Reims 


Beauvais 


Oise 


Amiens 


Somme 


Tours 


Indre-et-Loire 


Le Mans 


Sarthe 


Angers 


Maine-et-Loire 


Nantes 


Loire-Inferieur 


Laval 


Mayenne 



« The Archbishop of Bordeaux has three suffragans outside France : St. Denis and 
La Reunion, St. Pierre and Fort de France (Martinique), Basseterre (Guadaloupe). 



36( 



Appendices 



A rchitshops and Bishops 


Dioceses 


Aix, Arles, and 


Embrun 


Bouches-du-Rhone except Mar- 


Marseilles 




Arr. de Marseilles [seilles 


Frejus and Toulon 


Var 


Digne 
Gap 

Nice 




Basses-Alpes 
Hautes-Alpes 
Alpes-Mari times 


Ajaccio 




Corse 


BESANgON 




Doubs et Haute-Sa6ne 


Verdun 




Meuse 


Belley 
St. Di6 

Nancy 




Ain 

Vosges 

Meurthe 


Avignon 




Vaucluse 


Nimes 




Card 


Valence 




Drome 


Viviers 




Ardeche 


Montpellier 




Herault 


Rennes 




Ille-et-Vilaine 


Qnimper 
Vannes 




Finisterre 
Morbihan 


St. Brieuc 




C6tes-du-Nord 


Chambery 






Annecy 
Tarentaise 




Haute-Savoie 
Val-de-Tarentaise (Savoie) 


Maurienne 




Val-de-Maurienne (Savoie) 



3^1 



IV 



A List of the Larger French Churches which were 
at one time Cathedrals and usually referred to as 
such. 



Note. — Those marked H. M. are classed as Les Monuments Histortques by 
La Commission de la Conservation des Monuments Historiques. 



Agde 


Hirault 




H. M. 


Alais 


Garde 






Alen9on 


Orne 


Notre Dame 


H. M. 


Alet 


Aude 


Notre Dame 


H. M. 


Apt 


Vaucluse 




H. M. 


Aries 


Bouches-du-Rh6ne 


St. Trophimus 


H. M. 


Arras 




St. Vaast 




Auxerre 


Yonne 


St. Etienne 


H. M. 


Auxonne 


Cdte-d'Or 


Notre Dame 




Avranches 


Manche 


(remains only) 


H. M. 


Bazas 


Gironde 


St. Jean 


H. M. 


Bethleem 




(There was once 


a Bishop of 






Bethleem whose 


see was the 






village of Clamecy only, but 






no cathedral.) 




Beziers 


Hirault 


St. Nazaire 


H. M. 


Boulogne 


Pas-de- Calais 


Notre Dame 




Bourg 


A in 


Notre Dame 




Brioud 


Haute-Loire 




H. M. 


Cambrai 




Notre Dame 




Carcassonne 


Aude 


St. Nazaire 


H. M. 


Carpentras 


Vaucluse 


St. Siffrein 


H. M. 


Castres 


Tarn 


St. Benonit 




Cavaillon 


Vaucluse 


St. Veran 


H. M. 


Condom 


Gers 




H. M. 


Conserons 


Ariege 


(See St. Lizier) 




Die 


Drdme 




H. M. 


Dinan 


C6tes-du-Nord 


St. Saveur 


H. M. 



362 



Appendices 



Dol 


Ille-et- Vilahie 


St. Samson 


H. 


M. 


Elne 


Pyrenees-Orientales 




H. 


M. 


Embrun 


Hautes-Alpes 




H. 


M. 


Glandeves 


Basses-Alpes 


(Bishopric transferred 
to Entrevaux) 






Grasse 


A Ipes-Maritimes 


(Bishopric in XlVth 
century) 






Laon 


Aisne 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M. 


Lavaur 


Tarn 


(Bishopric in XlVth 
century) 






Lectours 


Gers 


(Bishopric in Xth century) 




Lescar 


Basses-Pyrenees 




H. 


M. 


Lisieux 


Calvados 


St. Pierre 






Lodeve 


Herault 


St. Fulcran 


H. 


M. 


Lombez 


Gers 




H. 


M. 


Macon 


Sadne-et-L aire 


St. Vincetat 


H. 


M. 


Mallezais 


Vendee 








Mirepoix 


Arilge 


(Bishopric in XlVth 
century) 






Noyon 


Oise 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M. 


Oloron 


Basses-Pyrenies 




H. 


M. 


Orange 


Vaucluse 


Notre Dame 






Perigueux 


Dordogn. 


St. Etienne 






St. Bertrand de 


Haute- Garonne 




H. 


M. 


Comminges 










St. Die 


Vosges 








St. Lizier 


A r lege 




H. 


M. 


St. L6 


Manche 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M. 


St. Malo 


Ille-et- Vilaine 








Ste. Marie 


Basses-Pyrenees 








St. Omer 


Pas-de- Calais 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M. 


St. Papoul 


Aude 




H. 


M. 


St. Paul Trois 


Drdme 




H. 


M. 


Chateaux 










St. Pol de Leor 


\ Finisterre 




H. 


M. 


St. Servan 


Ille-et- Vilaine 


St. Pierre d'Aleth 






Sarlat 


Dordogne 




H. 


M, 


Seez 


Orne 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M. 


Senez 


Basses-Alpes 




H. 


M. 


Senlis 


Oise 


Notre Dame 


H. 


M, 


Sisteron 


Basses-Alpes 








Soissons 


Aisne 


Notre Dame 
St. Gervais 
St. Protais 


H. 


M, 


Tarbes 


Hautes-Pyrenees 


Eglise de la Sede 


H. 


M, 


Toul 


Meurthe 


St. Etienne 


H. 


M. 


Toulon 


Var 


Ste. Marie-Majeur 






Treguier 


C6tes-du-A-ord 




H. 


M. 



zf>z 



Appendices 

Uzes Gard St. Thierry 

Vabres Aveyron 

Vaiso Vaucluse rx. ix. 

Versailles Seine-et-Oise St. Louis 

Vence Alpes-Maritimes , :ti- ^■ 

Vienne /J^^^ St. Maurice H. M. 



364 



Chronology of the chief styles and examples of church 
building in the north of France from the 
Romano-Byzantine period to that of the 
Renaissance 



1 050-1 07 5 Nevers 
107 5-1 100 Bayeux 
Caen 

1 1 25-1 1 50 Autun 

St. Denis 

II 50-1175 Angers 
Paris 
Sens 

1 200-1 225 Reims 
Auxerre 
Troyes 

1 225-1 250 Amiens 
Dijon 
Bourges 
1 250-1275 Noyon 
I 300-1 32 5 Rouen 
1 3 50-1 37 5 Chartres 

1 425-1450 Auxerre 
1 450-1 475 Evreux 



1 47 5-1 500 Rouen 

Nevers 
1 500-1 525 Beauvais 
Chartres 

1 525-1 550 Beauvais 
Amiens 

1 550-1 57 5 Beauvais 
1 600-1 62 5 Orleans 



St. Etienne 
Notre Dame 
St. Etienne 

St. Lazare 
(choir) 
St. Maurice 
Notre Dame 
St. Etienne 

Notre Dame 

St. Etienne 

Sts. Peter and Paul 



Notre Dame 

St. Beninge 

St. Etienne 

Notre Dame (cloisters) 

Notre Dame (lady-chapel) 

Notre Dame 



Distinct round-arch 
style 

Pointed arch in 
vaulting and 
larger works,with 
the retaining of 
the round in the 
smaller 

General adoption 
of the ogival 
style 

The completed 
ogival style 



St. Etienne (N. tran- 
sept) 

Notre Dame (transepts 
and tower) 

Notre Dame (S. W. 

tower) 
St. Etienne (S. porch) 
St. Pierre (S. transept) 
Notre Dame (N. W. 

spire) 
St. Pierre (N. transept) 
Notre Dame (fleche) 

St. Pierre (central tower 

since destroyed) 
Ste. Croix 



Introduction o f 
Renaissance de- 
tail in Italy and 
elaboration o f 
Gothic in France 

Renaissance firmly 
grafted in Italy 
and gradually 
appearing in the 
Gothic of France 



Renaissance firmly 
established 



z(>s 



VI 

Dimensions and Chronology 
NOTRE DAME D'AMIENS 




Dime7isions 

Length of nave and choir, 469 feet 
Width including transepts, 214 feet 

366 



Appendices 



Width of nave, 59 feet 

Width of aisles, -i^y/z feet 

Height of nave, 141 or 147 feet, estimated variously 

Height of aisles, 65 feet 

Length of choir, 135 feet 

Width of nave including aisles, 150 feet 

Length of transepts, 194 feet 

Width of transepts, 36 feet, 6 inches 

Height of spire, 422 feet 

Superficial area, 70,000 square feet (approx.) 

Chronology 

Nave and choir, 1 220-1 288 

Choir stalls, 1 520 

Western towers completed, 1533 

Lateral chapels of nave, XVIth century 

Choir chapels, Xlllth century 



ST. MAURICE D'ANGERS 




Dinieiisions 

Length of nave and choir, 300 feet 
Width of transepts, 40 feet • 

367 



Appendices 

Height of transepts, 80 feet 
Height of nave, no feet 
Width of nave, 53 feet 
Height of spires, 225 feet 

Chronology 

Lower walls, Romano-Byzantine 
Main body completed, 1240 
Choir, Xllth century 
Bishop's Palace, Xllth century 
Arras tapestries, XlVth century 
Choir doorway, Xlllth century 
(Recently restored by VioUet-le-Duc) 



ST. VAAST D'ARRAS 

Dimensions 

Length of nave and choir, 302 feet 
Height of nave, 66j^ feet 
Width of nave, 49 feet 
Height of tower, 1 54 feet 

Chro7iology 

Former Cathedral of Notre Dame begun, end of Xllth century 

Former Cathedral of Notre Dame completed, 1499 

Present Cathedral of St. Vaast, 1755-1833 

Triptych of Bellegambe in present Cathedral, 1 528 

Former Abbey of St. Vaast, now Episcopal Palace since 1754 



ST. LAZARE D'AUTUN 

Dimensions 
Height of spire, 325 feet 

Chronology 

Transition portion constructed by R I)*rt I., 

Duke of Burgundy, 1031-1076 
Spire, XVth century 
Sculpture of choir, XVIth century 
Flamboyant chapels, XVIth century 

368 



Appendices 
AUXERRE 

Chronology 

Crypt (remains of early work), Xlth century 

Choir and glass, 12 15-1234 

Western portals, Xlllth century 

Nave, 1334-1373 

North transept, 141 5-1 51 3 

N. W. tower, 1 525-1 530 

Iron grille of choir, XVIIIth century 

NOTRE DAME DE BAYEUX 

Dimensions 

Central belfry, 300 feet 
Length interior, 335 feet 
Height interior, 74 feet, 9 inches 
Height of western towers, 252 feet 

Chronology 

Odo's crypt, Xlth century 

Circular arches of nave, late Xlth or early Xllth century 

Portals of west fa9ade, Xlllth century 

Chasuble of St. Regnobert, gift of St. Louis, 1226 

Date of tapestry (in inventory of church property), 1476 

ST. PIERRE DE BEAUVAIS 

Dimensions 

Height of nave, 1 50 feet 

Height of original spire, which fell in 1 573, 486 feet 

Area of choir, about 28,000 square feet 

Chronology 

The Basse CEnvre, Vlth to Vlllth centuries 
Present building begun, 1225 
Dedicated, 1272 
Roof fell, 1284 
South transept begun, 1500 
North transept begun, i 530 
North transept finished, 1537 
Central spire fell, i 573 

Ancient Bishop's Palace, now Palais de Justice, 
XlVth to XVIth centuries 



Appendices 



ST. ETIENNE DE BOURGES 




p ^ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

±:: : : : .: 



♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 



♦ ♦ ♦ 



iiwTlrtt 



Dimensions 

Length, 405 feet 

Width, 135^ feet 

Height of nave, 124^ feet 

Height of inner aisle, 66 feet 

Height of outer aisle, 28 feet 

Height north tower, 217)^ feet 

Height south tower, 176 feet 

Superficial area, 73,170 square feet (approx.) 



Chronology 

Dedicated, 1324 
Sepulchre, 1336 
Crypts, Xllth century 
North tower, 1 508-1 538 
Tower St. Etienne completed, 
Tower St. Etienne fell, 1 506 
Choir stalls, 1760 



1490 



Appendices 

ST. ETIENNE DE CHALONS -SUR 

MARNE 

Chronology 

Tower next north door, Romano-Byzantine 
Part of nave and choir, Ogival primaire 
Aisle and chapels of apse, XlVth century 
Apse restored, after fire, in 1672 

NOTRE DAME DE CHARTRES 

Dimensions 

Length nave and choir, 430 feet 

Width, no feet 

Length nave only, 121 feet 

Width nave, 46 feet 

Width nave aisles, 19 feet 

Height nave, 106 feet 

Length transepts, 202 feet 

Width transepts, 70 feet 

Height of north spire, 403 feet 

Height of south spire, 365 feet 

Rose window, diameter, 40 to 43 feet 

Area, 65,000 square feet (approx.) 

Chronology 

Wooden church burned, 1020 
Crypt under chevet of choir, 1029 

(only remains of original church) 
Work of rebuilding stopped, 1048 
South portal erected, 1060 

Work aided by Matilda, queen of William I., 1083 
Lower portion of main body built, 1100-1150 
Western towers, 1145 
Fire damaged greater part, 1194 
Vaulting completed, 1220 
Porches of transepts added, 1250 
Building consecrated, October 17, 1260 
Sacristy and screen in crypt, XHIth century 
North spire burned, 1506 
Texier's spire erected, 1 507-151 5 
Texier's spire repaired, 1629 
South spire repaired, 1754 
Belfry and roof burned (vaulting unharmed), 1836 



Appendices 
NOTRE DAME D'EVREUX 

Dimensions 

Length, 368 feet, 6 inches 
Transept, length, 112 feet 
Transept, width, 23 feet 

Chronology 

Church consecrated, 1076 

Church burnt, 11 19 

Northwest tower foundations laid, 1352 

Northwest tower completed, 141 7 

North transept, XVIth century 

Nave, early Xllth to late XVth century 

Choir, XlVth century 

Lady-chapel, Xlllth century 

NOTRE DAME DE LAON 





— 1 


B 


: 

■ 
• 




tjesB 


-m 





Dimensions 

Length of nave and choir, 351 feet 

Height of nave, 80 feet 

Width of nave, 67 feet, 7 inches 



372 



Appendices 



Length of transepts, 174 feet 

Width of transepts, 35 feet, 9 inches 

Height of western towers, 173 feet 

Height of southwest tower and spire (formerly), 328 feet 

Western circular window, 26 feet 

Superficial area, 44,000 square feet (approx.) 

Chronology 

Original church burned, 11 12 
New edifice begun, 11 14 
Entirely rebuilt, 11 90 
General restoration, 1851 



ST. JULIEN, LE MANS 




Dim elisions 

Length of nave and choir, 369 feet 

Width of nave and aisles, 78 feet 

Width of choir, 123 feet 

Height of choir, 108 feet 

Area of choir, 30,000 square feet (approx.) 

Length of transept, 178 feet 

Width of transept, 32 feet 



Appendices 



Chronology 

West fa9ade, Xlth century 

Transition, south portal, Xllth century 

Nave and transepts reconstructed, Xllth century 

Church extended beyond city walls, Xlllth century 

Choir rebuilt, 1200 

Choir restored, 1858 

Coloured glass, Xlllth, XlVth, XVth centuries 

Rose window, south transept, XVth century 

Former Bishop's Palace destroyed by Germans, 187 1 

ST. ETIENNE DE MEAUX 

Dimensions 

Height of nave, 109 feet 
Length of nave, 275 feet 
Length of transepts, 1 20 feet 

Chronology 

Bishopric founded, 375 A.D. 
Choir in part, Xllth century 
Restored, 1852 

ST. PIERRE DE NANTES 




374 



Appendices 



Dimensions 

Height of western towers, 270 feet 
Height of nave, 130 feet 

Chronology 

Remains of choir contains, Xllth century 

Romanesque church rebuilt, XVth century 

West front, 1434- 1500 

North transept and choir only completed in XlXth century 

Tomb of Fran9ois II. and Marguerite de Foix, 1507 

Later restoration, 1852 



NOTRE DAME DE NOYON 




Dimensio7is 

Length, 338 feet 

Width of nave and aisles, 64 feet, 10 inches 

Height of nave, 74 feet, 6 inches 

Height of aisles, 28 feet, 9 inches 

Height of choir, 26 feet, 3. inches 

Height of towers, 200 feet 

Superficial area, 30,000 square feet (approx.) 

375 



Appendices 



Chronology 

First constructed, 989 

Burnt, 1 131 

Rebuilding undertaken, 11 37-1 150 

Choir, transepts, and nave completed, 1 167-1200 

Timber work burnt, 1293 

Chapter-house built, Xlllth century 

Five bays of cloister built, XlVth century 

Restored under governmental supervision, 1840 



ST. CROIX D'ORLEANS 



Dimensions 

Height of towers, 280 feet 
Height of nave, 100 feet 

Chronology 

First bishops sent from Rome, Ilird century 

Cathedral destroyed by Huguenots, 1567 

Chapels of nave which still remain, XlVth century 

Late Gothic mainly of XVI Ith century 
Western towers completed, 1789 



NOTRE DAME DE 
PARIS 

Dimensions 

Length, 390 feet 

Width, 144 feet 

Height of nave, 102 feet 

Diameter of rose windows in transept, 

feet 
Superficial area, 64,100 square feet 




36 



Chronology 

Founded by Bishop de Sully, 
High altar dedicated, 1182 
Interior completed (approx.). 
West front, 1223-1230 
Western towers, 1235 
Transept portals, 1257 



[160-1170 
:2o8 



376 



Appendices 
NOTRE DAME DE REIMS 











WL \ 


"Vrvf^ 


% 


X 


1 




^ 


1 


\ 


tM-^^^ 




Flying Btittrcsses, 
Reims 



Diviensions 

Western towers, 267 feet 
Area, 65,000 feet (approx.) 

Chronology 
First stone laid, 121 2 
First portion dedicated, 121 5 
Chapter takes possession of choir, 1244 
Nave commenced, 1250 
Transept and abside ornamented, 1295 
South tower begun and completed, 1 380-1 391 
Coronation of Charles VII., 1427 
Southwest tower completed by Philastre, 1430 
Tapestries added to choir, 1444 
Belfry of the Angel built, 1497 
Gable of the Assumption and Zodiac, 1408 
ReestabHshment of grand altar, 1547 
Repairs to portals and vaulting, 1610 
Cathedral becomes national property, 1790 
Exterior repairs and restoration, 181 1 
General restorations, 1840 

2,083,411 francs voted by Chamber for restorations, 1875 
Gifts of Gobelin tapestries, 1848 

377 



Appendices 
NOTRE DAME DE ROUEN 




Dimensions 

Length of nave and choir, 450 feet 
Width, including transepts, 177 feet 
Width of nave and aisles, 105 feet 
Length of choir only, 118 feet 
Height of nave, 92 feet 
Height of central spire, 480 feet 
Height of Tour de Beurre, 252 feet 
Height of Tour St. Romain, 246 feet 
Area (originally), 53,000 square feet 

Chronology 

First church founded on site of cathedral by St. Mellar, Vllth century 

Cathedral enlarged under Rollo, who was buried therein in 930 

Consecrated and dedicated, 1063 

Tour St. Romain, remains of, Xlth century 

Destroyed by fire, 1 200 

New building completed, Xlllth century 

Portail de la Calende, XlVth century 

Tour de Beurre laid, 1487 

Tour de Beurre completed, ii:;o7 

Flamboyant west front, XVIth century 



378 



Appe7tdices 



Altar of St. Romain, XVIIth century 
Tomb of the Cardinals, 1556 
Central spire, 1823 
Restoration of west front, 1897 



ST. ETIENNE DE SENS 

Dimensions 

Length, 384 feet 
Width, 124 feet 
Height, 98 feet 
Area, 44,000 square feet 

Chronology 

Relique of True Cross given by Charlemagne, 800 A. D. 

Early church destroyed by fire, 970 

New church dedicated, 997 

Present building completed, 11 68 

Choir rebuilt, 1174 

Present transept and nave, Xllth and Xlllth centuries 

Glass in chapel of St. Savinien, Xlllth century 

Glass of rose windows, XVIth century 

Mausoleum of the Dauphin, XVIIIth century 



BASILIQUE DE ST. DENIS 

Dimensions 

Length of nave and choir, 354 feet 

Width, 133 feet 

Clerestory windows (height), t^i feet 

Chronology 

Chapel first built above grave of St. Dionysius the martyr, 275 a. d. 

Benedictine abbey first founded here in reign of Dagobert, 628 

Pope Stephen took refuge here, 754 

Romanesque fa9ade, 1140 

Consecration of the building, 1144 

Nave, Xlllth century 

Abbot Suger died, 1151 

Crenelated battlement added to fa9ade, XlVth century 

Spire burned by lightning, XlXth century 

General restoration by Suger's successors, Xlllth century 

379 



Appendices 



General restoration by Viollet-le-Duc, i860 

Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette reinterred here (removed from 
the Madeleine), 18 17 





NOTRE DAME DE ST. OMER 

Dimensions 
The great bell of tower weighs 8,500 kilos. 

Chronology 

Bishopric founded, 1533 

Astronomical clock, XVIth century 

Tomb of St. Erkembode, Vlllth century 

Tomb of St. Omer restored, Xlllth century 

Former Episcopal Palace, now Palais de Justice, 1680 



380 



Appendices 
ST. GATIEN DE TOURS 




Dimensions 



Length of nave and choir, 256 feet 
Width, 95 feet 

Chronology 

Choir begun, 1170 

Tour Charlemagne, Xlth century 

Tour St. Martin, Xllth century 

Transepts, 1316 

West fa9ade, 1430- 1500 

Southwest tower, 1 507 

Tomb of children of Charles VIII., 1483 



ST. PIERRE DE TROYES 

Dimensions 

Length, 394 feet 

Width, 168 feet 

Height, 96 feet 

Height northwest tower, 202 feet 

381 



Appendices 



Chronology 

Apse and chapels, 1 206-1 223 

Choir and transepts, 1314-1315 

Iron grille of choir, Xlllth century 

Church consecrated, 1430 

West fa9ade, XVth century 

Nave constructed during XlVth, XVth, XVIth centuries 

North gable, XVth century 

Tower St. Pierre, 1 559-1 568 

Northwest tower demolished by lightning, 1700 

Vaulting of transepts fell, 1840 

Restoration of choir and transepts, 1840 



38a 



VII 



The French Kings from Charlemagne Onward 



Charlemagne , . . 
Louis le Debonnaire 
Charles le Chauve . 
Louis IL, le Begue . 

Louis III 

Carloman .... 
Charles le Gros . . 

Eudes 

Charles III., the Simpl 

Robert I 

Rodolf of Burgundy 
Louis IV., the Stranger 
Lothaire .... 
Louis v., le Faineant 
Hugh Capet . . . 
Robert IL, the Wise 
Henry I 



Philip I., TAmoureux 
Louis VL, le Gros . 
Louis VII., le Jeune 
Philip Augustus . . 
Louis VIIL, the Lion 
Louis IX., the Saint 
Philip III., the Hardy 
Philip IV., the Fair 
Louis X., Hutin . 

John I 

Philip V. . . . 
Charles IV., le Bel 



A. D. 
768 
814 
840 
877 
879 
879 
884 
887 

893 
922 

923 
936 

954 
986 
987 
996 
103 1 
1060 
1 108 

1137 
1 180 
1223 
1226 
1270 
1285 
1314 




A. D. 

Philip VI., de Valois . . 1328 
John IL, the Good . . . 1350 
Charles V., le Sage . . 1364 
Charles VL, the Beloved 1380 
Charles VII., the Victori- 
ous 1422 

Louis XI 1461 

Charles VIII 1483 

Louis XII., of Orleans . 1498 

Francis 1 151 5 

Henry II 1547 

Francis II 1559 

Charles IX 1560 

Henry III 1574 

Henry IV., the Great . . 1589 

Louis XIIL, the Just . . 1610 

Louis XIV., le Grand . . 1643 

Louis XV 1 71 5 

Louis XVI 1774 

Revolutionary Tribunal . 1793 

Directory ^795 

Napoleon, Consul . . . 1799 

Napoleon I., Emperor . 1804 

Louis XVIII 1814 

Charles X. ..... 1824 

Louis Philippe .... 1830 

Republic 1848 

Napoleon III., Emperor . 1852 

Republic 1870 



«i oami^eara* 



383 



VIII 

Measurements of the Cathedrals at Amiens and 
Salisbury 



( Whittington) 








A miens 


Salisbury 


Frenchfeet 


Englishfeet 


Length east to west 


415 


452 


Length west door to choir 


220 


246 


Length behind choir, including lady-chapel 


63 


65 


Length transepts north to south 


182 


210 


Width nave 


42.9 


34.5 


Width transept 


42.9 




Width side aisles 


18 


17-5 


Width windows 


41 


48 


Width nave and side aisles 


78.9 


102 


Width west front 


150 


115 


Height vault, nave 


132 


84 


Height vault, choir 


129 




Height west towers 


210 




Height chapels 


60 




Height side aisles, nave 


60.8 




Height side aisles, choir 


57.8 


38 


Distance between pillars 


16 




Height grand arches 


78 


78 


Number of pillars 


46 




Number of chapels 


25 




Length of choir 


130 , _ 


140 



(The old French foot is the equal of 1.06576 English feet.) 
The above comparative measurements are given as being of the 
contemporary types of English and French cathedrals, being nearly 
approximate to each other as to the date of their erection and 
measurements. The figures themselves are transcribed from a little- 
known but thoroughly conscientious work by G. D. Whittington, en- 
titled " Contributions to an Ecclesiastical Survey of France." 



384 



IX 



French Metres Reduced to English Feet 

Metres English feet and Metres English feet and Metres English feet and 
decimal parts decimal parts decimal parts 



I 


3.281 


20 


65.618 


300 


984.270 


2 


6.562 


30 


98.427 


400 


1312.360 


3 


9843 


40 


131.236 


500 


1640.450 


4 


13-123 


50 


164.045 


600 


1968.539 




16.404 


60 


196.854 


700 


2296.629 


6 


19.685 


70 


229.663 


800 


2624.719 


7 


22.966 


80 


262.472 


900 


2952.809 


8 


26.247 


90 


295.281 


1000 


3280.899 


9 


29.528 


100 


328.090 






10 


32.809 


200 


656.180 







Z^l 



X 



A Brief Glossary of architectural terms ^with popular 
definitions^ as applied to the components which 
compose the "principal features of a cathedral 
church 

No. I. Ground Plan 



A Lady-chapel 

B Transept 
C Porch 




The principal chapel, usually behind the 
high altar, at the extremity or eastern end 
of choir, dedicated to Our Lady (Notre 
Dame) 

The middle portion of a church, which pro- 
jects at right angles with the main body 
of nave and choir 

Usually the vestibule or receding doorway 

386 



Appendices 



D Lantern or crossing 



E Choir 



Ambulatory 
Chapels 



H Nave 



I Aisles 



Portal 
Abside 
Sacristy 



Where the transept crosses and joins choir 
and nave, usually with windows, if a lan- 
tern proper 

That portion of the edifice in which are 
stalls for the choristers, and chapter, also 
containing the Maitre d'Autel 

The aisles or colonnade which surround 
the choir 

Literally a small place of worship contain- 
ing an altar. In a great church, which 
may contain several, they are usually 
dedicated to male and female saints 

The main body of a church, extending from 
the choir to the principal fa9ade ; /. e. 
that part between the outer aisles 

The lateral passage on either side of the 
nave and separated therefrom by piers 
or pillars 

Literally, the framework of a doorway 

The domed easterly end of a church 

The apartment in which is kept the church 
plate and vestments 



No. 2. Cross Section 




Appendices 



A Nave aisle vaulting 
B Nave vaulting 
C Flying buttress 



Side aisle 
Buttress pier 
Pinnacle 
Gargoyle 
Niche 



The arched roof of stone 
The arched roof of stone 
A supporting outside prop of the thrust 
variety. Notably a distinguishing feature 
of mediaeval Gothic architecture 
The passage which flanks the nave 
The outer support of a flying buttress 
On towers, buttress piers, gables, etc. 
A projecting water-spout carved grotesquely 
A recess in a wall, or surmounting a pier ; 
primarily to hold a statue 



No. 3. Interior 





jvh 3 




^^ 








< \ m 


A 




tM 










B 




^^H 










4MmW 




C 


11 p 






iB^^^l^^jj 




1 


D 




P^^ H ^^^^^qj^^ 


i 









A Clerestory The upper range of windows of the nave ; 

rising above the adjoining portions 

B Triforium Literally, a blind window — a range of 

openings, or possibly an arcade-effect 
only, coming below the clerestory and 
above the lower arches of the nave 

C Arch (between nave Joining the piers or pillars which separate 
and aisle) nave from aisles 

388 



Appendices 



D Pillars (of nave) 



E Vaulting 
F West wall 



G Arcaded gallery 



H Pavement 



Commonly called pillars, columns, and 
piers, but more often are literally pillars, 
being made up of blocks of stone one 
upon another 

The stone arched roof 

Here, in the true Gothic church, is usually 
found a rose window, though often ob- 
scured by the organ case 

A feature frequently seen in the interior of 
great churches, as distinct from the trifo- 
rium. Either decorative or of practical 
value 

The floor, always of stone, and often of 
marble or mosaic 



No. 4. Cross Section 



6 


§ 


1 

J 

1 



A Flying buttresses 
B Timber roof 

C Nave 



A thrust support, or prop, extending from 
the main fabric to an outer pier 

The timber or scantling above the nave, 
which supports the outer tiled or leaden 
roofing 

The main body of a church 

389 



Appendices 



D Aisle The passage which flanks the nave 

E Outer aisle A second or outer passage flanking the nave 

F Stairway to roof of Stairways from the interior pavement, lead- 
aisle ing to triforium, belfry, or roof 
G Crypt In reality a lower or subterranean church 

or chapel ; from crypta, to hide 
H Buttress pier The outer support of a flying buttress, or 

one lying directly against the wall which 

it strengthens 



390 



INDEX 



Abelard, 94. 

Acquitaine, 176, 211. 

Adela, mother of King Stephen 

of Blois, 121. 
Agrippa, 134. 

Aisne, Department of the, 134. 
Alen5on, Bishop of, 307. 
Alen9on, Notre Dame d', 296- 

298. 
Amboise, Cardinal d', 84, 90. 
Amboise, Georges d', 85, 90. 
Amiens, 32, 35, 37, 61, 62, 117, 

129, 133, 200, 267, 272, 278. 
Amiens, Bishop of, 65. 
Amiens, Cathedral at, 140, 141, 

384- 
Amiens, Flying buttresses at, 67. 
Amiens, Notre Dame d', 64, 69, 

72, 366, 367. 
"Ampoule, Sainte," The, 25, 143. 
Angers, 119, 149. 
Angers, Bishop's Palace at, 181. 
Angers, Castle at, 175. 
Angers, David d', 235. 
Angers, St. Maurice d', 147, 173- 

182, 367, 368. 
Angevine Churches, The, 215. 
Angevine details at Le Mans, 115. 
Angevine style of architecture. 

The, 176, 180. 
Angouleme, 15. 
Anjou, 115. 
Anjou, Counts of, 175. 
Anjou, Dukes of, 173, 181. 
Anjou, Margaret of, 173. 

39 



Anne of Brittany, 169, 184. 
Anne, Duchesse {see also Anne of 

Brittany), 188. 
Antwerp, 126. 
Architectural divisions of France, 

34- 
Ardennes, Department of the, 

134- 
Aries, 23- 

Arras, 15, 184, 226. 
Arras, Belfry at, 245 ; Citadel of, 

244 ; Hotel de Ville, 245. 
Arras, St. Vaast d', 242-246, 368. 
Artois, 237, 242. 
Assisi, St. Francis of, 188. 
Attila, 132. 
Attila, Attack on Aurelianum, 

150. 
Attila, Defeat at Chalons, 251. 
Augustus, 134. 
Aurelian, 150, 226. 
Autun, 33, 257, 258. 
Autun, St. Lazare d', 257-261, 

368. 
Auvergne, 151. 

Auvergnat Churches, The, 215. 
Auxerre, 215. 
Auxerre, Bishops of, 194. 
Auxerre, Episcopal Palace at, 

195. 
Auxerre, St. Etienne d', 191- 

196, 369. 
Auxonne, Notre Dame d', 220. 
Avignon, 33. 
Avranches, 321. 

I 



Index 



Avranches, Notre Dame de, 326- 

328. 
Azon, 307. 

Baldwin of Hainault, 237. 

Balzac, 164. 

Bayeux, 285. 

Bayeux, Odo, Bishop of, 31 1, 31 2o 

Bayeux, Notre Dame de, 310-314, 

369- 
Bayeux, Tapestry of, 310, 311. 
Beauvais, 13, 19, 20, 32, 35, -^i, 61, 

69, 1 1 7-1 1 9» "^ZZ^ 200,267. 
Beauvais, Bishop of, 52, 303. 
Beauvais, Romano-Byzantine 

work at, 75. 
Beauvais, Cathedral of St. Pierre, 

28, 70-76, 140, 369. 
Beaux Arts, Departement de, 23, 

340. 
Beaux Arts, Palais des, 96. 
Becket, St. Thomas a, 54, 280, 

282, 327. 
Bedford, Duke of, 90. 
Belgica, Secunda, 132. 
Bellegambe, 244. 
BeMne, Count of, 307. 
Belmas, Bishop, 235. 
Benedictine Abbey at St. Denis, 

93. 
Berengaria, Queen, 113, 120. 
Bernard de Soissons, 138. 
Berry, Due de, 96, 108. 
Besan^on, 27, 32, 223, 225. 
Bethleem, Bishop of, 31. 
Bishop's Palace, The (Amiens), 

67. 
Bishop's Palace, The, at Beauvais, 

76. 
"Black Angers," 174 {see Shake- 
speare on Angers). 
Blanche of Castile, 66, 169. 
Blois, 18, 149, 210, 215. 
Blois, Chateau of, 157. 
Blois, Counts of, 121. 
Blois, King Stephen of, 121. 
Blois, St. Louis de, 156. 
Bonn, Minster at, 50. 
Borgia, Caesar, 182. 



Borromee, 244. 
Boulogne-sur-Mer, 223, 225. 
Boulogne-sur-Mer, Notre Dame 

de, 231-233. 
Bourasse, Abbe, 108, 211, 260, 

279' 303- 

Bourges, t^t^, 37» 61, 215. 

Bourges, St. Etienne de, 139, 
199-208, 370. 

Brest, 348. 

Bretagne, Due de, 187. 

Briceius, 165. 

Brittany, 12, 20, 27, 32. 

Brittany, Chancellor of, 182. 

Brittany, Duchy of, 184. 

Bruges, 262. 

Burgundy, 258, 259, 262. 

Byzantine influences at Bourges, 
202. 

Byzantine tendencies, 13; con- 
ception, 27. 

Caen, 285. 

Cassar, burned Orleans, 150. 

Calixtus II., 133. 

Calvin (John), 51. 

Cambrai, 15, 226. 

Cambrai, Notre Dame de, 234- 

236. 
Capet, Hugh, 51. 
Carcassonne, '^t^. 
Carlovingian Dynasty, The, 94. 
Carrier, 183. 

Cathedrals, The Grand, 23. 
Cathedrals of the North, 26. 
"Caveau Imperial," The, at St. 

Denis, 95. 
Chalons (sur Marne), 132, 133, 

226. 
Chalons-sur-Marne, St. Etienne 

de, 251-253, 371. 
Chambidge, Martin, 276. 
Chambord, 18, 210, 214. 
Champagne, Counts of, 274. 
Chancellor of Brittany, 182. 
Chantilly, Chateau of, 50. 
Charlemagne, 51, 133, 282. 
Charlemagne, Tour de, 165. 
Charles of Anjou, 12a 



392 



Index 



Charles the Bold, Ddke of Bur- 
gundy, 262-263. 
Charles (King), 212. 
Charles V., 240, 282. 
Charles VII., 30, 138, 144. 
Charles VIII., 17, 169, 184. 
Charles X., 24, 144. 
Chartres, 20, 30, 33, 35, 61, 62, 

113, 210, 215, 278, 338. 
Chartres, Celtic foundation of, 

124. 
Chartres, Counts of, 121. 
Chartres, Details at, 87. 
Chartres, Jean de, 187. 
Chartres, Notre Dame de, 121, 

139, 140, 141, 371. 
Chartres, Spires of Cathedral at, 

125, 267. 
Chaste Susanne, Painting of, 220. 
Chateau of the Italian Dukes (at 

Nevers), 210. 
Chateaux of the Loire, 18,32, 148. 
Chaucer's "Temple of Mars," 86. 
Chaumont, 18. 
Chenonceaux, 18, 210. 
Childeric, 132, 133. 
Cires-les-Mello, 35. 
Clamecy, 31. 
Clement, Eudes, 99. 
Clotilda, wife of Clovis, 133. 
Clovis, 22, 30, 138, 139, 143, 144, 

224. 
Clovis, Baptism of, 133. 
Coligny, 151. 
Cologne, Apse-sided transepts 

at, 50. 
Cologne, Cathedral at, 20, y] , 

135' 141- 
Colomb, Michael, 187, 332. 
Colombiers, 315. 
Commercy, Jacquemin de, 250. 
Commission des Monuments 

Historiques, 35, 170, 176, 213. 
Compiegne, Chateau of, 50. 
Condes, The, 153. 
Constant, 282. 
Cormier, Jean, 129. 
Corroyer, 349. 
Coucy, Chateau of, 50. 



Coutance4 267, 285, 286, 321. 
Coutancej, Notre Dame de, 321- 

325- 
Creil, 35. 

Croixmore, Abp. Robert de, 84. 
Crusaders, The, 14. 

Dagobert I., 93. 

D'Arc, Jeanne, 151, 303. 

Dauphins of France, The, 170. 

Da Vinci, 157. 

De Breze, Louis, 89. 

De Breze, Pierre, 89. 

De Caumont, " Abecedaire'd Ar- 
chitecture," T,^, 349. 

De Sauteuil, 106. 

Descartes, 164. 

Descent from the Cross, The (by 
Rubens), 239. 

Devils of Notre Dame, The, 106. 

Dieppe, 285. 

Dijon, 27, 223, 258. 

Dijon, St. Beninge of, 225, 262- 
265. 

Dinan, 335. 

Dol-de-Bretagne, Facade at, 98. 

Dol-de-Bretagne, St. Samson de, 

329-332- 
Domenichino, 272. 
Domfront, 321. 
Douai, 244. 

Du Bellay Langey, 120. 
Dufetre, Mgr., 211. 
Duroctorum, 132. 

East of Paris, 221. 

Eastern influences at Bourges, 

202. 
Ebo, Bishop of Reims, 136. 
Edict of Nantes, The, 183. 
Edward III., 129. 
English characteristics of Gothic, 

45, 68. 
Estonteville, Cardinal d', 88. 
Evreux, 32. 
Evreux, Notre Dame d', 288-295, 

372. 
Exeter, 114. 



393 



Index 



Falise, 321. 

Fenelon, 235, 236. 

Fergusson, quoted, 12, 56, 126, 

139- 
Fiesole, Jerome de, 187. 
Flemish school of painting, 244. 
Flemish wood-carving, 90. 
Florence, i^. 
Flying buttresses, Notre Dame 

de Paris, 28 ; Notre Dame 

d' Amiens, 28; Tours, 167. 
Foix, Marguerite de, 187. 
Fouilloy, Evrard de, 65. 
France, Architectural divisions 

of, 34. 
France, Ecclesiastical capital of, 

133- 
France, Kings of, 24, 93, 383. 
Francis I., 74. 
Francis II., Tomb of, 187. 
Franks, The, 22. 
Franks, The Ripuarian, 133. 
Franks, Invasion of, 132, 133, 

224. 
Frankish influence, ii. 
Freeman, Prof. Aug., 113, 248, 

311- 
Frejus, 15. 
French Flanders, 41. 
French Gothic Architecture, 38. 
French Mediaeval Architecture, 

38. 
French Revolution, The, 31, 43, 

44. 52, 55. 96,99* 103, 142, 184, 

226. 
Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, 129. 

"Gallery of Kings," at Amiens, 

67. 
Gallery of Kings, The (at Reims), 

138, 178. 
Gaucher, 138. 

Geeraerts (of Antwerp), 235. 
Genabum (of Gallia), 150. 
Genoa, 157. 

German manner of building, 27 . 
Ghent, 242, 262. 
Gisors, 35. 
Gobelin Tapestries, 76, 143. 



Gonse, 349. 

Good God of Amiens, The, 66. 

Gothic, Development of, 14, 24; 

Rudimentary, 16; Anti, 18; 

Non, 18. 
Goujon, Jean, 89, 170. 
Gourney, 35. 
Grand Cathedrals, The, 12, 20, 

35, 61-63. 
Granville, 321. 
Grouin, 345. 
Guillaume of Sens, 225. 
Guillaume Bras-de-Fer, 323. 

Hachette, Jeanne, 76. 
Haffreingue, Mgr., 233. 
Henry I., 129, 133. 
Henry II. (of France), 1 13, 166, 

249. 
Henry II. (of England), 282, 301, 

325- 
Henry IV., 30, 96, 133, 153, 183. 
Henry of Navarre, 129. 
House of the Kings, The, 144. 
Hugh II., 215. 
Hugo's "Notre Dame," 106. 
Huguenots, The, 153, 195. 
Humbert, Alberic de, 137. 

Irene, Princess, 130. 

Isle de la Cite, 105, 106. 

Isle of France, 12, 27, 61. 

Italian influences, 17. 

Ivor (Bishop of Chartres), 212. 

James (Henry), 163, 204. 
Jean sans Peur, 265. 
Jensen, Nicolas, 164. 
Joannes, Abbe, 253. 
John, Duke of Bedford, 90. 
John the Baptist, 69. 
Jovinus, Tomb of, 142. 
Juste, 170. 

"Kreisker," The (at St. Pol de 
Leon), 345. 

La Hougue, 345. 
Langres, 32. 



394 



Index 



Langres, La Montagne de, 218. 
Langres, St. Mammes de, 218- 

220. 
Laon, 20, 32, 41, 61, 325. 
Laon, Notre Dame de, 43-46, 49, 

139. 372-373- 
Laon, Palais de Justice, 46. 
Last Judgment, The (at Bourges), 

204. 
Le Mans, 32, 61, 62, 120, 121, 124, 

168, 200, 210, 338. 
Le Mans, German invasion of, 

120. 
Le Mans, Notre Dame de la 

Cloture, 180. 
Le Mans, St. Julien, 11 3-1 20, 

373. 374- 
Leo III., 133. 
Leo IX., 307. 
Le Puy, ZZ- 
Lescornel, 219. 
Le Teliier, 144. 
Le Veneur, Bishop, 292. 
Libergier, 142. 
Limoges, 151. 
Lisieux, 285, 286, 301. 
Lisieux, St. Pierre de, 301-304. 
Loire, Cathedrals of the, 145. 
Loire, Valley of the, 147, 148. 
Loire, Chateaux of, 18, 32, 147. 
Longsword, William, 89. 
Lorraine, Abbe, 143. 
Loudon, Geoff roy de, 118. 
Louis le Debonnaire, 133. 
Louis le Gros, 133. 
Louis I., 136. 
Louis VI., 94. 
Louis XL, 208, 246. 
Louis XII., 184. 
Louis XII., Tomb of, at St. Denis, 

19. 
Louis XIV., 144. 
Louis XVL, 96, 282. 
Louis XVIII., 31, 96, 143. 
Louis Philippe, 31. 
Louviers, 127, 297. 
Low Countries, The, 16, 20. 
Lowell (James Russell), " A Day 

in Chartres," 126. 



Lowell, Hon. E. J., 310. 
Luitgarde, 165. 
Luzarch, Robert de, 65. 

Madeleine, The, 96. 

Maid of Orleans, The, 81, 94, 144, 

Maine, 114. 

Maine, Count of, 120. 

Mainz, 214. 

Mansard, 159, 240. 

Margaret of Anjou, 173, 181. 

Marie Antoinette, 96. 

Marie de Medicis, 182. 

Marie Louise, 95. 

Marne, Department of, 132, 134. 

Marne, River, 270. 

Martel, Charles, 133. 

Matilda, queen of William the 

Conqueror, 129, 310, 311. 
Mazarin (Cardinal), 210. 
Meaux, 270. 
Meaux, St. Etienne de, 270-273, 

374- 
Medicis, Marie de, 182. 
Mere de Dieu, 66. 
Metz, 227', 248, 249. 
Meyron, Etchings of, 106. 
Montbray, Geoffrey de, 323. 
Monthery, 89, 
Mont St. Michel, 321, 337,338; 

Abbey of, 338. 
Monuments, Historical, 23, 340. 
Moorish type of architecture at 

Bourges, 201. 
Moors of Spain, The, 202. 
Moselle, Valley of the, 226. 
Moulins, 36. 
Musee des Petits Augustines, 96. 

Nancy, 226. 

Nancy, Cathedral at, 227. 

Nantes, 20, 32, 148, 149. 

Nantes, Edict of, 183. 

Nantes, St. Pierre de, 183, 374, 

375- 
Naples, 157. 
Napoleon I., 31, 103; Marriage 

of, 95. 



395 



Index 



Napoleon III., 31, 99. 

Narbonne, 151. 

"Narthex, Burgundian," 258. 

Netherlands, The, 14. 

Neuss, Apse-sided transepts at, 

50. 
Nevers, t^t,, 277. 
Nevers, St. Cyr and St. Juliette 

de, 209. 
Nevers, St. Etienne de, 212, 216. 
Nevers, The Pont du Loire, 209. 
Nevers, Tour Gougin, 213; Tour 

St. Eloi, 213. 
Nicman, Archbishop, 136. 
Nievre, Counts of, 210. 
Nimes, ^tZ- 
Nivernais, The, 210. 
Nogent-les-Vierges, 35. 
Normandy, 115, 176. 
Normandy, Duke of, 89. 
Norsemen, The, 82. 
Notre Dame d'Alen9on, 296-298. 
Notre Dame d'Amiens, 64-69, 72, 

366, 367. 
Notre Dame d'Auxonne, 220. 
Notre Dame de Bayeux, 310-314, 

369- 
Notre Dame de Boulogne-sur- 

Mer, 231-233. 
Notre Dame de Cambrai, 234- 

236. 
Notre Dame de Chartres, 121, 

139-141, 371- 
Notre Dame de Coutances, 



32] 



325- 



Notre Dame d'Evreux, 288-295, 

372. 
Notre Dame de la Cloture (Le 

Mans), 180. 
Notre Dame de Laon, 43-46, 372. 
Notre Dame de I'Epine, 251. 
Notre Dame de Noyon, 29, 49- 

53» i99» 375. 376. 
Notre Dame de Paris, 28, 49, 10 1- 

107, 139, 140, 199, 376, 377. 
Notre Dame de Reims, 132-144, 

248, 249. 
Notre Dame de Rouen, 37, 49, 

79-90, 139, 338, 378, 379. 



Notre Dame de St. Lo, 315-318. 
Notre Dame de St. Omer, 237- 

241, 380. 
Notre Dame de Senlis, 266-269. 
Noviodunum, 51. 
Noyades, The, 184. 
Noyon, 20, 32, 41, 117, 127, 268. 
Noyon, Notre Dame de, 29, 49- 

53> 199- 375. 376. 

Odericus Vitalis, Bishop, 302. 

Odon, 323. 

Oise, The River, 50. 

Onfroy, 323. 

Orange, 184. 

Oriflamme, The, 94. 

Orleans, 33, 148, 149. 

Orleans, Captured by Clovis, 151, 

152. 
Orleans Family, The, 169. 
Orleans, German occupation of, 

151- 
Orleans, St. Croix d', 150-155, 

376. 
Orleans, The Maid of, 81, 94, 144, 
151- 

Palais de Justice, Beauvais, 76. 

Parame, 335. 

Paris, 20, 61, 267. 

Paris, Documentary history of, 

26. 
Paris, East of, 221. 
Paris, Notre Dame de, 28, 49, 

101-107, 139, 140, 199, 217, 

376, 377- 
Paroissien, Poncelet, 142. 
Pepersack Tapestries at Reims, 

The, 143. 
Pepin, 94, 133. 
Perigueux, 15, 33. 
Perpetus, Bishop of Tours, 165. 
Perreal, Jehan, 187. 
Perrifonds, Chateau of, 50. 
Philastre, Cardinal, 137. 
Philippe Augustus, 24, 34, 1 1 7. 
Philippe le Bon, 262. 
Philippe le Hardi, 66, 265. 
Picardy, 184. 



396 



Index 



Picardy, Patron Saint of, 69. 

Plantagenets, Cradle of the, 173. 

Poitiers, 33. 

Poitiers, Diane de, 89. 

Pont du Loire, Nevers, 209. 

Pope Stephen, 94. 

Portal de St. Honore (Amiens), 

67. 
Portal de la Vierge D o r e e 

(Amiens), 67. 
Porte d'Arroux, Autun, 257. 
Porte St. Andre, Autun, 257. 
Provence, 211. 

Quimper, 27, 32, 348. 
Quimper, St. Corentin de, 348- 
350- 

Rabelais, 164. 

Rabida, " Bretagne " of, 338. 

Raphael, Tapestry cartoons at 

S. Kensington, 76. 
Reclus, 215. 
Regnault, 187. 
Regnier, Cardinal, 235. 
Reims, 32, 35, yj, 128, 129, 224, 

226, 278. 
Reims, Baptism of Clovis at, 30. 
Reims, Capture of, by vandals, 

132. 
Reims, Cathedral at, 24. 
Reims, Details at, Zt, 
Reims, Devastation at, 25. 
Reims, Notre Dame de, 93, 132- 

144, 248, 249. 
Reims, Portals of Cathedral, 66. 
Reims, Roman remains at, 134. 
Reims, St. Nicaise of, 82. 
Remi, Capital of the, 132. 
Renaissance, The, 16. 
Renaissance Architecture at 

Bourges, 201. 
Renaissance fajade at Tours, 

166, 167. 
Renaissance wood-carving, 46. 
Ren^, King, 173, 175, 181. 
Reni, Guido, 272. 
Rennes, 15. 



Revolution, The French, 31, 43, 

44, 52, 55, 96, 99, 103, 142, 

184, 226. 
Rhine, The, 23, 27, 223. 
Rhine Provinces, The, 14. 
Rhone, The, 36. 
Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 90, 113, 

120. 
Richard the Fearless, 83. 
Rigobert, Bishop, 133. 
Robert I., Duke of Burgundy, 

258, 260. 
Robert, son of Tancrede-de- 

Hauteville, 323. 
Roger, son of Tancrede-de- 

Hauteville, 323. 
Rohan, Cardinal de, 243. 
Rollo, 82, 89. 
Romanesque tendencies, 13, 27, 

44; types, 20, 21. 
Roman power. Decline of, 26. 
Roman remains at Reims, 134. 
Romans, The, at Genabum (Or- 
leans), 150. 
Romano-Byzantine work at 

Beauvais, 75. 
Romano-Byzantine nave at Le 

Mans, 115. 
Rome, 33. 
Rosary, Chapel of the (Soissons), 

57- 
Roscoff, 345. 
Rouen, 19, 35, y], 61, 62. 
Rouen, Cathedral at, yj, 49, 79- 

90, 139, 338, 378, 379. 
Rouen, Notre Dame de, 37, 49, 

79-90, 139, 338, 378, 379. 
Rouen, Tour de Beurre, 204. 
Royal Domain, The, 223. 
Royale Rue (Tours), 163. 
Royamont, 35. 
Rubens, 235, 238. 
Rubens, " Adoration " by (Sois 

sons), 58. 
Rumaldi, 136. 
Ruskin on Rouen Cathedral, 

85. 
Ruskin, quoted, 72, 81, 128, 285, 

302. 



397 



Index 



St, Aignan, 150. 

St. Beninge (Monk of Dijon), 

225. 
St. Beninge (Cathedral), 262-265. 
St. Bertin, Abbey of (St. Omer), 

225, 240. 
St. Brieuc, 339, 342. 
St. Brieuc, Cathedral of, 342-344. 
St. Corentin, Cathedral of, 27. 
St. Corentin de Quimper, 348- 

350- 
St. Croix, Abbey of, 318. 
St. Croix d'Orleans, 150-155, 376. 
St. Cyr and St. Juliette de Nevers, 

209. 
St. Denis, 19, 61. 
St. Denis, Abbey of, 93. 
St. Denis, Abbot of, 94. 
St. Denis, Basilique de, 93-100, 

379- 
St. Denis, Church of (at St. 

Omer), 225. 
St. Denis, Crypt of, 96. 
St. Deodatus, 254. 
St. Die, 226, 254-256. 
St. Die (Cathedral), 255, 256. 
St. Dionysius, 97, 98. 
St. Etienne d'Auxerre, 1 91-196, 

369-. 
St. Etienne de Bourges, 199-208, 

370. 
St. Etienne (Chalons-sur-Marne), 

251-253* 371- 
St. Etienne de Meaux, 270-273, 

374. 
St. Etienne du Mont (Paris), 15, 

19. 
St. Etienne de Nevers, 212, 216. 
St. Etienne de Sens, 279-282, 

379- 
St. Etienne de Toul, 247-250. 
St. Eustache, Church of, Paris, 

196. 
St. Fermin the Martyr, 67, 68. 
St. Francis of Assisi, 188. 
St. Gatien de Tours, 147, 163, 

206, 381. 
St. Gengoult, Church of (Toul), 

248. 



St. Germain, Church of (at Au- 

xerre), 195. 
St. Jean the Evangel, 218. 
St. Jean des Vignes, Abbey of, 54. 
St. John, 69. 
St. Julien, Church of (at Tours), 

169. 
St. Julien, Le Mans, 1 13-120, 

373' 374- 
St. Laud, Bishop, 315. 
St. Lazare d'Autun, 257-261, 

368. 
St. Lo, 285, 321. 

St. Lo, Notre Dame de, 315-318. 
St. Louis, 34, 66, 188, 314. 
St. Louis, Arms of, 169. 
St. Louis de Blois, 156. 
St. Louis de Versailles, Cathedral 

of, 108. 
St. Maclou, Church of (Rouen), 

19, 81. 
St. Male, 335, 338. 
St. Malo, Cathedral of, 336-338. 
St. Mammes de Langres, 218-220. 
Ste. Marguerite, 188. 
St. Martin (of Tours), 165. 
St. Martin, Tour de (at Tours), 

165. 
St. Maurice d'Angers, 147, 173- 

182, 367, 368. 
St. Nazaire (Autun), 258. 
St. Nicaise, 82, 136, 142. 
St. Nicolas de Coutances, 325. 
St. Mellor, 82. 
St. Omer, 27, 223, 225, 
St. Omer, Notre Dame de, 237- 

241, 380. 
St. Ouen, Church of (Rouen), 15, 

30, 80, 87, 241, 277. 
St. Peter's, at Rome, 20. 
" St. Peter's of the North," 71. 
" St. Peter's of the South," 13. 
St. Peter and Paul, Church of (at 

Tours), 165. 
St. Pierre d'Aleth, 336. 
St. Pierre de Beauvais, 28, 70-76, 

140, 369. 
St. Pierre de Coutances, 325. 
St. Pierre de Lisieux, 301-304. 



398 



Index 



St. Pierre de Nantes, 183, 374» 

375. 
St. Pierre de Troyes, 274-278, 

381,382. 
St. Pol de Leon, 255, 339, 345- 
St. Pol de Leon, Cathedral of, 

345-347- 
St. Potentian, 279. 
St. Quentin, Maze at, 131. 
St. Remi, 31, 133, I34, 136- 
St. Samson, 329-332. 
St. Savinien, 279, 282. 
St. Sepulchre, Church of (at St 

Omer), 240. 
St. Servan, 335, 338. 
St. Sixte, 132. 
St. Urbain, 275. 
St. Vaast d' Arras, 242-246, 345, 

368. 
St. Yves, 341. 

"Sainte Ampoule," The, 25, 143. 
Salisbury, Cathedral at, 64, 384. 
Salisbury, John of, 129. 
Saracen type of architecture at 
Bourges, 201. 

Seez, 61, 267, 277, 305. 

Seez, Notre Dame de, 305-309. 

Seine, The, 36, 106. 

Seine and Loire (by J. M. W. 
Turner), 169. 

Seine, Department of, 108. 

Senlis, 266. 

Senlis, Notre Dame de, 266-269. 

Sens, 61, 279. 

Sens, Guillaume of, 225, 280. 

Sens, St. Etienne de, 279-282, 

379- 
Seville, Cathedral at, 20. 
Shakespeare on Angers (in " King 

John"), 173- 
Societe des Monuments Histo- 

riques, 35, 170, 176. 
Soissons, 20, 32, 41, ii7» i33' 268. 
Soissons, Bombardment of, by 

the Germans, 56. 
Soissons, Notre Dame de, 54-58- 
. South Kensington, 272. 
Stephen, Pope, 136. 
Stevenson (Robert Louis), 28,42. 



Strasbourg, 248. 

Strasburg, Cathedral at, 126, 135, 

227. 
Suger, Abbot, The, 94, 97. 
" Suisse, The," 80. 

Tancrede-de-Hauteville, 323. 

Tapestries at Angers, 181. 

Tapestries at Bayeux, 310-31 1. 

Tapestries at Le Mans, 120. 

Tapestries at Reims, 142, 143. 

Tapestries at Soissons, 58. 

Tapestries from Raphael's car- 
toons (at Beauvais), 76. 

Tapestry-making at Beauvais, 76 ; 
at Paris; at Arras, 76, 242, 245, 
246. 

Tetricus, 226. 

Texier, 126, 131. 

" Therouanne, The Great God 
of," 240. 

Torenai River, 258. 

Torlonia, Prince Alex, 233. 

Toul, 226, 247-250. 

Toul, St. Etienne de, 247-250. 

Toulouse, 151. 

Tour d'Auvergne, Cardinal de la, 
244. 

Tour de Beurre (Rouen), 84, 89. 

Tour de Charlemagne (at Tours), 
165. 

Tour de Hasting (at Tregmer), 

340- 
Tour Gougin (at Nevers), 213. 
Tour de I'Horloge (at Tours), 

165. 
Tour St. Eloi (at Nevers), 213. 
Tour de St. Martin (at Tours), 

165. 
Touraine, Old, 163. 
Tournai, 41. 
Tours, 18, 33, 277. 
Tours, Church of St. Peter and 

Paul, 165. 
Tours, St. Gatien de, I47> 163, 

206, 381. 
Tours (St. Martin of), 165. 
Tours, West front of St. Gatien, 

74- 



399 



OCT 31 19Q3 



Index 



Transition examples, 39. 
Transition Style of Architecture, 

The, 176. 
Treguier, 32, 255, 339. 
Treguier, Cathedral of, 339-341- 
" Tresor," The, at Reims, 143. 
" Tresor," The, at Troyes, 278. 
" Tresor," The, at Sens, 282. 
" Tresor," The, at Bayeux, 314. 
Treves, 214. 
Trianons, The, T08. 
Troyes, 20, 61, 274, 275. 
Troyes, St. Pierre de, 274-278, 

381,382. 
Turner (J. M. W.), "Seme and 

Loire," 169. 

Valence, 36. 

Valois Branch of the Orleans 

Family, 169. 
Vannes, 351. 
Vannes, Cathedral of, 351, 352. 



Vauban, 244. 
Vaucluse, 184. 
Vendome, Matthieu de, 99. 
Versailles, Fountains at, 108. 
Versailles, St. Louis de, 108. 
Villeneuve, Bishop de, 193. 
Villers-St.-Pol, 35. 
Viollet-le-Duc, 83, 96, 99, 139, 

181, 349. 
Vire, River, 315. 

Wellington, Duke of, 175. 
Westphalia, Treaty of, 249. 
William, Duke of Normandy, 323. 
Winchester, Henry, Bishop of, 

121. 
Winchester, Prelate of, 303. 
Wood-carving (at Amiens), 68. 
Worms, 214. 

Yonne, The River, 191. 
Young, Arthur, 36, 209. 



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